Lights, Camera, Action!
by Paradise-Whispers
Summary: When a director arrives in Amity Park to film a movie about the Ghost Boy, Danny is not thrilled. Phantom is famous enough as it is, and a movie about him isn't going to make him any less popular. All Danny wants is for his secret identity to remain intact, but even that is proving to be difficult with this new-found fame. Becoming the lead doesn't help much, either.
1. Math Problem

**I do not own Danny Phantom. The end. Please enjoy the story. **

_Chapter 1: Math Problem_

Danny stared at the bobbing heads occupying the Nasty Burger parking lot. "This can't be serious." Danny muttered to himself in a puff, and began to wander around looking for any faces that could be Tucker or Sam. "What could be so important at the Nasty Burger? Maybe they are finally serving those Macho Tacos Tucker suggested."

While wandering around, he had been seeing some fairly crazy sights. Some people standing, which Danny finally concluded was a line, were dressed up in wild outfits. Some people were wearing colorful dresses, and others had wild hair.

"Maybe a circus of freak shows came to town." Danny chuckled, but stopped in his tracks when he saw a group of people dressed up as him. Well, as Phantom. "Except them."

Ignoring the scary fact that their was a ton of people dressed as his alter ego, he walked on. He pushed himself on his tiptoes, and finally caught sight of Tucker and Sam. He waved, and they waved back.

"What's going on?" Danny asked, breathless, once he had traveled through the pack of people. He pushed a guy with a fire-red troll-ish beard away from him, who glared at Danny angrily. Danny suck his tongue out, and immediately escaped to the other side of Tucker, now out of reach. couldn't get him now; he didn't want to lose his spot in line.

Tucker looked at Danny, then at Sam with a hint of hesitation in his expression. Sam stared back at Tucker, and to Danny it seemed they were trying to have a mental conversation with their eyes. It wasn't working that well.

"Come on," Danny complained, brushing his right hand through his hair. "What's the worst thing that could happen at the Nasty Burger? A discount day? Radioactive meat? I have been through worse with Vlad. I can handle it." The line traveled forward, with them trailing behind.

"Okay, Danny." Blurted Tucker. "Promise you won't get mad?"

Danny was getting frustrated now, but he knew that he shouldn't get angry with hundreds of people around him. "Yes, I won't get mad. Just tell me." Danny replied anxiously, instinctively inching closer to Tucker and Sam.

He really wanted to know whatever his friends wouldn't tell him. They had always been honest with each other since they met, but Tucker and Sam were probably just trying to "protect" him from something he could take care of himself.

"Danny," Sam spoke softly to Danny, to prevent curious people from hearing. "Do you know Greg Smith?"

Danny shook his head, obviously clueless.

Same answered her own question after a moment of silence between them. "He is a famous movie producer and writer." Danny's confused expression and continued. "He is here to make a movie about Danny Phantom."

Danny's confused expression became blank. Sam could almost see the gears clicking in Danny's head.

"They could of at least asked me for permission." Danny finally mumbled angrily, but not as much anger Sam had anticipated. "I could sue."

"I don't think it's legal for ghosts to go to court." Tucker joked, reciving a couple of smiles from Danny and Sam.

The line moved forward a little bit more. The three teens shuffled ahead.

"What's the line for?" he asked, slightly calmer.

"Greg Smith and his crew are having tryouts for the parts right now. I am trying out for Danny Phantom." Tucker announced, his chest sticking out proudly, and pointed at his chest with his thumb. Danny began laughing hysterically, imagining a red cape blowing from Tucker's back.

"You-you're trying out as Danny Phantom?" Danny asked between laughs. Tucker eyed Danny angrily.

Sam decided to butt in right now, before Tucker would become even more angry. "Don't you realize what will happen to Danny Phantom after this movie comes out?" She didn't want Danny to worry more, but she wanted him to realize how critical this movie would be to his secret identity.

"Danny Phantom will become famous." Tucker answered proudly, obviously informed by Sam. Tucker didn't sound the least bit worried, but he did always dream of fame and fortune.

At that moment, it felt like the whole world stopped. Danny felt the blood rush from his face. He finally realized why his friends didn't want to tell him about this movie before. Well, at least Sam. The movie would come out, and thousands and thousands of people would want to see the real ghost boy personally. Cameras would be following Danny Phantom, and as a result it would make it hard for him to transform into Danny Fenton without people near him to see his transformation. He couldn't just stay human the whole time either; ghosts would be attacking the town. It was like a simple math problem: Danny Phantom plus movie equals fame.


	2. The One

**This chapter will focus on Greg Smith, and why he is in Amity Park, his personality, etc...enjoy**

_Chapter Two: The One_

Greg Smith looked around happily at the crowd of people. As the old saying went: "The more, the merrier," which was exactly what Greg wanted. More people would be more talent.

Greg was sitting in the audition room, which was just tables and chairs in the Nasty Burger cleared out. In their place, one long table and five chairs were there for the people evaluating the auditioners.

He kicked a disgusting green fry away from under his chair, watching it soar away. Now he realized why it was called the _Nasty_ Burger, as to the _Yummy _Burger.

"Next." he said, waving his hand. A teen with broad shoulders, blonde hair, and blue eyes walked in. He looked like a football player to Greg.

"I am Dash Baxter, and I would like to try out for a the part of Danny Phantom. He's my hero." Dash announced proudly.

Greg already knew Dash didn't have a hair of a chance of being Danny Phantom. He wanted somebody at least the same size as Phantom, then with the help of an expensive makeup crew, he could make him look like Phantom. Maybe Dash could be a villain. He sure had the muscles for it.

Dash continued with his tryout. He stepped forward and pointed his finger to the sky. "I will save you!" He shouted, his voice cracking occasionally. Sticking his arms out like Superman, he ran around the room, pretending to fly. Greg was trying super hard not to laugh, and he saw that the judges next to him were about to laugh also.

Seeing a brawny guy pretend to fly around the room was even better than an _American Idol_ audition. And it seemed that the super-villain idea just went down the toilet.

"Okay, stop." Greg ordered Dash. He "flew" over to the judges, then placed his arms to his sides.

"How did I do?" Dash asked happily.

Greg was about to say an insult about Dash's horrible acting, but he was too kind a man to do that.

Greg nodded, "Great, just great." Dash smiled then strutted out of the room.

Greg needed some air. He told the other judges to go take a break. They casted happy glances to Greg then left the Nasty Burger. He wondered if they would come back to this job of torture. But, hey, it's their paycheck.

Greg walked to the restroom, surprised by the insanely appealing smell to it. Kind of like cologne with a mix of flowers. Besides the writing on the stalls, it was fairly clean. "Why can't they work on the inside of this place as well as they do in here?" The thought of having tryouts here crossed his mind, but obviously it wouldn't work.

He turned on the sink, it's cheap plastic molding resembling marble, and washed his hands slowly with an abundance of soap. Cupping water in his hands, he splashed the water onto his sweaty face.

Greg ripped some paper towel, drying his face softly, then looked in the mirror. He stared at his Minnesota-tanned face and small brown eyes. He needed to refine his appearance before he went outside. Taking out a comb, he brushed his light, feathery brown hair, and fluffed up his facial hair. Before leaving, he straitened up his black suit and purple tie, and went back to the audition tables to gather his things.

Greg's thoughts began to scramble inside of him. He began to have his doubts about this movie. Nobody had the acting material he was looking for. He didn't want to have some Disney Star to play the parts; he needed someone who had actually seen Phantom and the other ghosts in action for a couple of years now. He wanted the acting to be real.

The residents of Amity Park should have some sort of "vibe" to them and their acting. He was seeking for a person who their acting to bring out the person inside of them, using whatever feeling they felt toward others for the script.

He traveled out of the Nasty Burger, only to be welcomed by many people attempting to get his attention for a part in the movie. They only stopped when he threatened to not give them a part at all.

Greg was headed to his apartment, when somebody caught his eye. A goth girl and an African-American guy were talking to him.

This teen was exactly who Greg was looking for. His whole body had almost the same shape of Phantom, although he was a little bit scrawnier. His black hair would look exactly like Phantom's if it was dyed white. He had blue eyes, but he could fix that with some contacts to make them greener. His expression had this confident, yet unsure feel to it, like he was always looking for something. Excellent attitude for Phantom.

This kid could be Phantom's twin.

Only with little differences between him and Phantom, he was, all in all, perfect for the part.

Greg found his ghost boy.

**I hope you liked this chapter as much as the last one, and how you can see how Greg is like. I thought it was fun to do a scene** **with Dash trying out, although it was slightly out-of-character. From the DP episodes I've seen with Dash in it, behind all that muscle is a little kid waiting to come out. **


	3. Auditions

**Since some people were curious about what happened at the auditions, I decided to have this chapter focus on a couple people's tryouts. Technically, Tucker may not have auditioned since he was in line with Danny, but I will show how his audition went anyway. **

**Enjoy.**

_Chapter 3: Auditions_

"Next." Greg said, signaling with his hand for the next person to come in. An African-American boy with a red hat walked in. Greg nodded for him to introduce himself.

"I am Tucker Foley." he announced, with a slightly over dramatic tone to his voice. "I'm trying out as Danny Phantom."

Greg was wondering how much people would be trying out for the ghost boy. With and emphasis on _boy_, since girls were trying out as him, too. Some of the girls did better than most of the guys.

"I will be doing Scene 42." Tucker continued.

The judges looked at each other nervously. Even they didn't know the scene numbers yet. Greg took out the script and flipped to the correct scene, just to make sure this kid knew what he was doing. A couple of judges copies Greg.

Tucker motioned for them to wait a second by sticking up his pointer finger, then turned himself away from the judges. From what Greg could see, Tucker was doing something with his hands while touching his face. A minute later of complete boredom, he turned back around.

Now Greg realized what Tucker was doing. Scene 42 was one of those sad scenes with crying. Tucker was doing something; pinching his face, or thinking about something sad to make himself cry.

Tucker's face looked flustered with blotches of red around his cheeks and eyes. One lonely tear fell down his face, and Greg could almost imagine it sparkling in some sort of light.

"Nooooo!" Tucker suddenly bursted out. "Please don't do this to me!" He fell on his knees with a painful sounding thump. That ought to help him with crying.

Greg nervously looked back on the script. These weren't even Phantom's lines. Even if they were, logically, the ghost boy couldn't cry.

Tucker was still on his knees, sobbing in his hands. It sounded like he was saying."Boo hoo." to Greg.

"Please, please! Ple-" Tucker was cut off with a beeping of his PDA. His instincts made him get up to check it. He sat up, somehow pulling a PDA out of a pocket that didn't seem to be there. Maybe he could be a magician. "Oh, crud." he muttered to himself. "Got to go do my homework now."

Greg figured he was reading from some kind of schedule. "Ok, good job..." he paused, forgetting his name after that outburst. "...Tucker." Tucker smiled before quickly shuffling out of the room.

"Next." Greg called. He was beginning to get sick of saying word that over and over again.

A beautiful Hispanic looking girl walked through the door.

"What's your name?" Greg asked her.

She seemed to be baffled that he had no idea what her name was. "Paulina." she replied in a angry, but informing tone. Greg had better not forget this girl's name.

"Who are you trying out as?" Greg questioned.

"Why would I need to try out? I'm beautiful." Paulina replied, still seeming to amazed by the questions Greg was asking. She flipped her hair slightly.

"Yes. I see. But I need to see how you can act for a movie." Greg was planning to use small and comprehendible words for Paulina. She didn't seem to be the smartest cookie in the cookie jar.

"Ok. But I still don't see why you need to see me act." Paulina answered. She took a deep breath. Then she smiled. "I am pretty. I am beautiful. I am cute. I am rich." She flipped her hair again, then flashed another smile.

"Stop. I didn't mean that kind of acting." Greg told her. "Pretend a scary ghost is coming after you." Paulina let out a scream. Greg smiled. That was a pretty good scream.

"Okay. Good job." Greg told her. He waved for her to leave.

"That's it? I'm done? I was just getting started." Paulina said sadly. Greg waved for her to leave again. Slowly Paulina began to walk out the door, but not before flashing another smile, then waving.

"Proximo!" Greg called. He had begun to get sick of saying 'next' all the time, so over his break he found a Spanish Dictionary, and found out how to say that word in Spanish.

Apparently nobody spoke Spanish here. "Next!" he shouted to the next person in line, agitated.

A teen with silky black hair sauntered in. He had on baggy black pants, and a grubby red shirt on.

"Yes?" Greg asked. This kid seemed to be getting to something.

"I would like to try out as a spectator." He informed.

"Spectator?" Greg confirmed. He had never heard of somebody trying for a part that no one would pay attention to. Especially a _spectator_.

"Yes, a spectator. Or a viewer, watcher, or citizen." The human thesaurus smiled, like he was talking to a teacher.

"Okay. Continue." Greg was getting curious on how this audition was going to go.

The kid took a breath, then smiled. Suddenly he let out a ear-deafening scream. "GHOST!!!" he began to run in circles like a lost chicken. This kid had potential, if only he used a little less scream. Quickly Greg motioned for him to stop, trying super hard not to cover his ears.

Once the kid stopped, he quickly walked out the door, waving. Greg never even got his name. What a gangster.

Valerie waited by the Nasty Burger door nervously. For some reason she had decided to do the auditions. She hated ghosts; why would she want to be in a movie when a ghost would be staring in it?

Valerie had been pondering this the past hours in line. She decided part of the reason was to make her father proud of her, and possibly the other half of her was tired to being and outcast. Hopefully if she made a part in the movie it would fix that.

She heard a muffled call behind the doors. "Next."

Slowly Valerie walked in. She was really scared after hearing the audition in front if her. This gangster-like kid had gone in the building, and a minute later he was screaming like he was going to be strangled.

Valerie walked toward the center of the room, trying to hide her uncontrollable shaking. _What is wrong with me? _She asked her self angrily._ I can fight ghosts, but I get scared during a stupid audition! _But she couldn't turn back now.

"I'm Valerie Gray. I would like to tryout for the part of Susan." Valerie informed Greg and the judges. Susan was one of the humans in th play, and she had a major role in the movie.

She took a deep breath. She knew her part, and the words she had to say. She spent hours deciding how to put emotion in them. Valerie just couldn't forget it now. Valerie began her audition.

"Wh-who are you?" Valerie asked to someone person who was not there.

"You don't know me?" Greg asked from his seat, his voice monotone. He figured this girl had potential, and without him expressing emotion, it would make acting harder. Greg had given three options for Susan that you could choose from to act out, and this girl had chosen the hardest one.

"No...I don't understand. Why can't see you?" Valerie added innocence and uncertainty to her voice.

Greg faked a laugh. "I'm a ghost. Danny Phantom."

"So-you're invisible?" Valerie tried to widen her eyes.

"Yeah. It's one of the things I can do."Greg replied to her. It was there that the part for the audition ended. Valerie let out a breath, grateful that this was over with now.

"That was great." Greg muttered. Valerie could become a great actress if he could just get the shakiness out of her voice, make her less nervous. He smiled. "Good job." he waved, signaling for Valerie to leave.

Valerie smiled, relieved, then walked out.

**I hoped you liked that chapter. Sorry for the little OCC-ness, especially for Paulina, but I think it wasn't that bad. Anyway, please review! **


	4. Interrogation

**I would love to thank all my readers and reviewers! You guys rock! Enjoy chapter four.**

_Chapter 4: Interrogation_

_This teen was exactly who Greg was looking for. His whole body had almost the same shape of Phantom, although he was a little bit scrawnier. His black hair would look exactly like Phantom's if it was died white. He had blue eyes, but he could fix that with some contacts to make greener looking eyes. His expression had this confident, yet unsure feel to it, like he was always looking for something. Perfect attitude for Phantom. _

_This kid could be Phantom's twin._

_Only with little differences between him and Phantom, he was, all in all, perfect for the part. _

_Greg found his ghost boy._

Greg walked up the teen, when he just realized he might have come at a bad time. His face was slightly paled, and he was staring into the unknowns.

"Sorry." Sam muttered to Greg. "He's having a bad day."

Bad day or not, he had to talk to this boy before he left. Once he was gone, Greg would have to go door to door to find him. "Well, can I talk to him?"

Tucker and Sam looked at each other. Sam wanted to say no; she didn't want to hear whatever this guy had to say. But Tucker thought differently. He wanted him to talk to Danny so he would have a better chance of getting a part.

"Yes!" Tucker blurted out before Sam could respond. Sam grumbled something incomprehensible. Whatever Greg had to say would not be good.

"How do I talk to him?" Greg asked. This kid seemed to be in a coma or something. It looked impossible to "wake" him up.

Both Sam and Tucker knew what to do, since they had done this ton of times before. "GHOST!" they shouted in unison.

Suddenly Danny jumped in the air, his pupils growing wide. _"_Where?" he asked, his head snapping everywhere to look for a ghost.

"How did you do that?" Greg wondered.

"He's a little afraid of ghosts. Like a phobia." Sam lied before Tucker said something stupid.

Danny was confused. Since when was this old guy by him and his friends? "Who are you?" Danny demanded. He was a little angry after the bad news.

"This is Greg." Sam told him. She noticed his face suddenly slightly red with rage. "He wants to talk to you."

Now Danny was angrier. Why would the person trying to ruin his life, even if unintentionally, want to talk to him?

"What do you want?" He growled.

Greg had no idea why this kid seemed to be mad at him. But his friends did say he was having a bad day.

He noticed the Goth girl walk up to him and whisper something. All he heard was something like: "...down...didn't...to..life..know.."

The teen calmed down. This kid was getting even more interesting by the minute. "Yes, I am Greg Smith." He held out his hand. "Who are you?"

Danny shook Greg's hand reluctantly. "I am Danny Fenton."

_That's odd. _Greg thought to himself curiously. _Him and the ghost boy have the same first name. _

"Nice to meet you." Greg said to Danny. "Hmm...you know, you do look like you could be Phantom's twin. Have you ever thought of trying for the part?_"_

Danny froze in place. That was a first. Somebody actually noticing that him and his alter ego look alike. Now Danny had no way to respond.

"Really?" he asked, his heart beating fast. He had to think up something quick. "I look like that ghost boy?"

Sam quickly butted in to cover for him, so Danny could calm down. Stupid, stupid, perceptive movie director! "Yeah." Sam stretched the word out, faking amazement. "You do look like him!"

Danny realized what Sam was doing and began playing along. He looked himself over then began touching his hair. 'You know, maybe I do..."

"Would you like to try out for the part?" Greg asked, excited. It seemed he was clueless about Danny's identity. "You would be perfect for it."

"I don't know..." Danny pondered. "I really stink at acting."

"Don't worry about that. I'll get you a teacher or something. " Greg had to convince this boy to try out for the part.

"I don't really know." Danny told Greg, pretending to sound unconfident.

This kid sounded convinced that he didn't want to try out. He shouldn't push him. "Well, if you change your mind, just call me." Greg handed Danny his card with all his information on it. "I really think you would do a good job." He winked, then walked away.

Once Greg was gone, Danny began to turn the card in his hand.

"You are not trying out, right?" Sam asked Danny.

"Actually, I really don't know. Do you think you could give me a while to myself?" Tucker and Sam nodded.

Danny pushed himself through the crowd of people, but not without complaints from them. He took a deep breath and forced himself out of the last of the crowd.

He slowly began to walk towards the edge of the city where a forest was. For some reason, he needed to look at the beauty of this place. It had a calming feeling to it. He was able to think, without people, cars of ghosts to distract him.

Danny had no idea why it was this movie was so stressful. Sure, once the movie came out his ghost half would be famous, but Danny could live through that. All he would have to do is pull some tricks to get away from the crowds.

If his human half became famous, things would be a ton harder. Without flying, and reduced intangibility (he couldn't turn invisible in the middle of the street with people following him.) it would be harder to get away from everyone.

To make sure crowds of people never followed him, he would never accept to be in the movie. His problem would be solved. Only Greg seemed determined to get Danny to play Phantom, and would do anything to get him to play the part. Also, for some strange reason, Danny Fenton wanted to star in the movie.

Maybe he just wanted fame, or for the fun of it. Danny had no idea. It was just an urge. In his whole life, he had never thought of being in a movie.

Danny's complicated thoughts were interrupted by an annoying chippering sound. He saw what is was then quickly ran away, sprinting through the undergrowth. He had a feeling he was being chased now.

**I hope you liked that chapter. Greg and Danny finally got to talk to each other, and you got to see what was going on in Danny's head. **

**Please review. I really want to hear what everyone has to say. Really. **


	5. The Chase

**Enjoy. **

_Chapter 5: The Chase_

Jazz began walking home after school in high spirits. She'd just given a perfect speech to her class about laws and government.

Jazz suddenly stopped when she got to her house, staring at something nobody should see in their lifetime. She stood there for a good long minute to process the tragedy that had happened to her, and her family.

Suddenly her eyes bursted into uncontrollable tears, and she began running. She had to go someplace. Soon she found herself at the park; a beautiful, happy place. Children were running around gleefully, and dogs were scampering in the grass. This place had happiness, and was sure to lift up Jazz's spirits. Jazz sat slowly on a nearby bench.

Her plan didn't seem to work. She began crying again with her head in her lap, her long hair covering her face perfectly. She didn't care if people stared; she was mourning, at nowhere else but here. She had no home to live in anymore.

Danny began sprinting further into the woods, jumping over rocks and bushes along the way. Danny figured he never could have done this before 'the accident'.

He still had the idea that he was being chased, which he was.

While running, his last glimpse of the squirrel that was chasing him stayed in his head. A _squirrel._ A cherished mammal, known for acorns and their soft, bushy tails. How silly it sounded being chased by a squirrel. But this squirrel was not like any other woodland creature. It had white, fang-like teeth that had a hint of green in it. This squirrel's mouth was slightly foaming, which gave Danny the idea that it might have rabies. It's fur was pitch black, like a midnight sky, and it had menacing green eyes.

Danny never knew squirrels could look so evil.

He continued to sprint through the forest, when a great idea came to his mind. He began to look around to see if anybody was watching him, except the squirrel, then he quickly turned into his ghost half.

Danny began flying around trees and plants, when he arrived at the edge of the forest. After being that fast, he knew the squirrel wouldn't be following him now. He flew out of the last trees, when he arrived at the park. He never had noticed before that the woods were connected to the park. That just shows how observant he is.

He looked around and saw little kids running around. To Danny's left, a dog was chasing a butterfly. It was peaceful here. Next time Danny wanted a place to calm down, he would pick here. He didn't want to risk being chased by another squirrel.

Then he saw Jazz. His confident and smart sister. She was sitting on a bench, her head in her knees. Danny had never seen Jazz do that before. In some way, he always looked up to her.

He was going to go over by her, but he was blocked off by many kids and parents. Then he realized he was still in his ghost form: the famous citywide ghost boy.

"Look!!" A chubby kid with a bright yellow shirt on yelled. "It's Danny Phantom!"

Quicker than a clock ticks, people came running over. The residents of Amity Park never got to see Phantom except when he was ghost fighting. In fact, that was the only time they ever saw him at all. After a ghost fight, he would just leave, never saying a word. So this was a special occasion.

Danny shied away from the crowd, still not used to be surrounded by people. The first fourteen years of his life he always stayed on the sidelines, but since he got his ghost powers, things were different. Even through all the criticism, pain, and tension, of Danny's ghost powers he wouldn't have changed a thing.

Danny figured since this was an "event" he should get out of here quick before news cameras came.

"Uhhhh..." He mumbled, thinking of an excuse. "I really have to go. Business to do." And with that, he turned intangible and flew away.

Danny hid in the trees, making sure that he was out of sight, then turned human. Slowly, casually, he walked through the woods. Danny hoped another squirrel wouldn't come and attack him while he was defenseless.

He walked out of the forest, softly whistling to himself. He went straight to the bench that Jazz was at then sat next to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. She didn't even bother to look at him.

Greg decided he'd go to the park for his break. Today was a perfect sunny day to be outside. He got in his car and began driving, bobbing his head to the rock music playing. Slowly he parked in the street, looking at all the happy people here.

He got out of his car, noticing that everyone was in a corner of the park, by the forest. Everyone except a teenage redhead who was on a bench.

Greg walked over to the crowd to get a better look at what everyone wanted to see. There was Danny Phantom, floating above everyone. He looked almost worried, glancing in a certain direction every once in a while. He mumbled something to everyone, and then disappeared.

Slowly the crowd left the area where Phantom was, but Greg stayed there, glancing in the forest where he believed the ghost boy was.

A couple minutes later, that kid Greg talked to before came out of the woods. His black hair had gotten a little shaggier. Greg was going to talk to him, but he noticed the kid looked slightly distracted. Then he walked over to the girl who seemed to be crying, and wrapped his arm around her.

Greg wondered how he noticed that girl so quickly, with all the people at the park today. It seemed he didn't look anywhere before he went to her.

Greg glanced into the forest. He wondered why once Phantom left, Fenton walked out of the very same place. Unless Phantom went someplace else.

Greg had a feeling this Fenton kid was very mysterious. He decided he'd keep a close watch on him.

The squirrel looked around. He had a strange feeling someone was talking to him.

Suddenly a figure appeared in front of him. He recognized this person.

"Chippers." His boss said. "I expected more of you. You were supposed to bite the boy, not scare him to death." His deep voice was smothered in anger.

Chippers answered with a flick of his tail.

"I will give you a couple more chances, and you better not fail." With that said, Boss disappeared with a puff of smoke.

Chippers looked at the sky, and then began searching for his target.

Danny sat next to Jazz. Her breathing was interrupted by the occasional cough or sniffle.

"Jazz?" Danny whispered. "What's wrong?"

Jazz began to sob some more. Jazz knew she had to be strong for Danny, but she just couldn't contain her sadness of what had happened.

Danny wrapped his arm around Jazz, bringing her into a hug. This time Danny had to be the strong one.

"Jazz, please tell me, what's wrong?" Danny asked again. Jazz looked up. Her face was a deep red from crying, and the very little makeup she wore was trailing down her face.

"Our house..." she sobbed. "...It's gone!"

Danny tried his best to hide his surprise. He prayed that this was all a joke, and soon she'd start laughing, saying how gullible she was. Jazz wasn't that way though; this was the real thing.

Danny's life just got a whole lot more complicated.


	6. Sight

**As for the house that had disappeared, I will explain a little about that in this chapter, but it was a part of my little plot bunnies. Enjoy chapter six! **

_Chapter 6: Sight_

"What?" Danny asked Jazz, his voice full of dread, a shadow of sadness falling down his adolescent face. "What do you mean?"

Jazz looked at Danny, no matter how much she didn't want to. It was humiliating for her younger brother to see her in the fragile state. It seemed to Danny the usual happiness in her face was gone, replaced by sadness. If a passerby had taken one glance at her, they wouldn't have recognized her as the happy-go-lucky teenager she was only a couple hours age. "It's..." she paused, then took deep breath, not wanting to accept the fact that whatever happened to their beloved home was real "...Gone."

Danny believed her with all his heart, but he had to see for himself. He couldn't leave Jazz her in her "damaged condition." He had to take her with him, even if it resulted to going to visit their house again, or what was left of it.

Danny embraced Jazz in a hug, and whispered in her ear gently. "I have to go see the house, and you have to come with me." Jazz glumly stared at Danny, and then abruptly shook her head slowly. Danny felt like a big brother right now, caring for his little sister.

Jazz appeared to change her mind, then slowly sat up, and began shuffling behind Danny.

Danny led Jazz into the forest, the only closest place for privacy here, ignoring everyone's curious stares. He ran behind a tree, for secrecy, and then turned into his ghost half, the blue lights of his transformation bouncing of the green plants, causing an eerie feel to the vegetation. He embraced Jazz in a hug and lifted her up with him, and as quickly as they arrived, they left. This reminded Danny of the times he sometimes flew with Sam, but this time it felt like he was carrying a porcelain doll.

Danny looked at the beautiful sights of Amity Park. Every time he flew, he never got tired of the lights of the city, the little dots of people and cars, and the unnatural feel of the wind. It made the world feel big and Danny feel small, only one miniscule person in this gigantic world.

Danny began thinking. Not something he did much, until now. He wondered what had happened to their house, whether it had burned down, been taken away, or something of that sort. He would have asked Jazz, but she didn't seem to be in the mood for talking.

A long ride later, they arrived at their "house." Danny almost missed it, but was stopped by an unnatural groan from Jazz.

Danny flew down near the rubble, and while evaluating the aftermath, he gently set Jazz on the greenest ground he could find. Jazz let out a devastated sob.

Quickly Danny checked to see if the close was clear, and then turned back into his human self.

Now Danny turned his head to absorb his home for the first time.

He gasped. Heart pounding, tears welling, sweat dropping, he saw his house, comprehending every piece of his long loved home. He tried with all his heart to create the illusion that is was actually there, with its brick walls, huge door, and its large, neon Fenton Works sign. The reality was, no matter how much he tried to believe this was a dream, it wasn't. This was real life.

Danny dropped to his knees, a reflex motion, and a pure action of mourning, both his hands gripped his forehead, half over his eyes. "Why? Why?" he whispered, sadness beginning to take over his whole body. "Why did this have to happen?"

He spent a while in the same position, like a statue, but eventually his whole body grew sore. He sat up, stretching his lean body. He had to be strong. Jazz walked over to him, slowly giving him a hug. He hugged back. Never so much in his life had he needed someone in his life.

Danny looked back up at their used-to-be-house. It was almost absolutely destroyed, buried beneath the dusty rubble. Bits and pieces of walls and windows were scattered everywhere. He couldn't believe the one place he could truly call home was completely gone, with no traces that a happy family had ever lived there. Surprisingly, even their parents' lab had been reduced to dust, with familiar bits and pieces of inventions sprawled everywhere. His parents' prized invention, the Fenton Portal, was hardly recognizable, with half of the arch gone, it was just a useless piece of trash, but was the only thing left standing. Danny couldn't bear imagining the pained expressions on his parents' faces when they saw what their home had come to.

_What could have caused such a thing to happen? _Thought Danny hopelessly, closing his eyes. Nothing in his deepest dreams he could imagine had done this. He couldn't think of any of this now, though; both of them had to get somewhere safe before night arrived.

But where would they go? Danny grabbed some spare paper and wrote a note telling his parents, who were at a convention right now, where they were going. He attached the note to a rock, where he prayed it wouldn't detach and fly away.

"Come on Jazz. We are going to Tucker's." Danny ordered Jazz. Jazz nodded, agreeing, willing to accept any leadership from her brother. The least she could do was follow.

They began walking to Tucker's house, the town beginning to get dark. Lights turned on, creating an eerie and dangerous feel to the streets.

Danny and Jazz arrived at Tucker's house. Danny knocked on the door loudly.

The door opened slowly, with Tucker in the doorway. "Danny!" he smiled. Boy was he happy to see his best friend. But his happiness disappeared when he saw the two Fenton's depressed and eager expressions.

His face turned questioning. "What's wrong?"

"Let us in, and I'll tell you. It's too cold out here." Danny desperately pleaded Tucker, his eyes on his older sister the whole time. Tucker nodded. Even the humorous techno-geek knew something horrible happened to his closest friend.

Danny, Jazz, and Tucker tip toed up to his room, making sure his parents didn't notice they had two new guests.

They sat down on Tucker's bed, and Danny began explaining, glancing at Jazz once in a while. Danny finished his story, and looked at his friends saddened face.

His face seemed sympathizing, but at the same time speculating, almost like he couldn't believe that this was happening to his friend.

"What can I do?" Tucker asked, willing to do anything to help Danny and Jazz in such a hard situation. He wasn't the type of man you come to advice and comfort, but the least he could do was try with all his might to help his friend.

"Could you let us stay here for a while? Until my parents come, which should be any minute now." Danny responded.

Tucker nodded at the same time the doorbell rang. Tucker smiled. "Wow, first a ghost, but I guess you're also psychic now."

Even in his situation, Danny couldn't help but smile with him.


	7. Conversation

**Enjoy.**

_Chapter 7: Conversation_

Tucker and Danny walked quickly to the door, taking long, rapid strides, and leaving teary-eyed Jazz staring after them.

Somebody knocked on the door again, and Danny opened it without thinking. There were his parents, at the Foley's doorstep. The sight of his parents should have made him happy after this miserable day, but it didn't.

Maddie was leaning on the wall by the door, and from the look of it, she was having a hard time standing up. Her face was blotched with red from crying, and her hair was matted in messy clumps. Jack was standing next to Maddie, with his bulky arms around her and his head down, his large figure almost seeming menacing next to his wife's shaking, slouched body. To Danny it seemed that Jack was also crying, but you would have to look really hard in this light.

Even through a suddenly disappearing house should make any family this happened to cry, Danny was angry and them. He had been hoping for his parents to come to this door, strong and confident, willing for everything to be fine, and a plan at the ready. At least that would have given him a little more assurance.

"You must be cold," Tucker said to them, looking at Danny, and then at Maddie, and up to Jack. "Why don't you come inside?" Tucker motioned to his living room with his right arm, while the other one still held the door handle.

Danny wrapped his arm around his mom, and helped her to the couch, with Jack on the opposite side. While Tucker tended to his parents, Danny went upstairs to get Jazz.

"Mom and Dad are here." Danny said softly. Jazz smiled a little bit, happy that their parents were finally here after this, long, horrible day.

Danny and Jazz walked to the living room, where their parents were having hot chocolate. Jazz walked over to Maddie and embraced her in a hug, then walked over to Jack and did the same. Danny and Jazz sat down next to their Mom and Dad, and they began to talk.

Danny explained the little bit of their disappearing house that he knew about. What they wanted to know was who or what could do this their family. Danny had a thought that his ghostly enemies could possibly be behind this, but Danny couldn't bear to suggest that to his parents.

Tucker soon left to let the Fenton's talk out what they were going to do now, and now was laying on his bed, reading _Technology Weekly: "The Best Magazine for Your Technotronic Needs!" _Obviously this was none of his business. They all had stopped crying now, their tears leaving behind a strange feeling to their cheeks, and the news was sinking into all of them.

"Where are we going to live?" Jazz asked, her eyes wide.

"We could stay here at Tucker's." Danny suggested. Danny was sure his best friend would let his family stay at his house for the time being.

"No. We couldn't do that." Maddie answered. "That would be asking too much. We would then have to stay here until our house gets re-built."

Jack nodded. "Maddie's right. We should just stay at a motel or something." After this disaster, Jack had become slightly rational.

The Fenton's sat for a while, thinking deeply. Danny, thinking ahead about asking Sam to let them borrow all of their guest rooms; Jazz, still shocked, and not having the same smart thought process she usually possessed, was wondering how they were ever going to live without all their meaningful possessions; Jack, with his stomach loudly growling, foolishly enough, was anticipating their casual visit to the Nasty Burger for a late supper; and Maddie, the only logical person at the moment, was actually thinking about the tough future ahead of them. Then Maddie's face changed into a sad, troubled, expression. She began crying again.

"What is it, mother?" Jazz asked, concerned.

"You know that we are slightly low on money, right?" Jack, Danny, and Jazz nodded. "Well, we will have to pay for all the expenses. The house, nearby property, and a hotel to stay in. Unless we had insurance, which we never had. So we will have to pay for all of that, since we have no one else paying for the damage. We could find out who damaged our house, but I have an odd feeling that will be impossible, and we might have been the ones that accidentally did it. Since we are low on money, I have a feeling we won't be able to pay for all of that."

Danny spoke up, hope filling his whole chest. "I might be able to help."

They looked up, except Jazz, who knew Danny was perfectly capable of impossible feats, were curious on how this fourteen-year-old boy could help their family. Especially because they hadn't known him to work at all in their lifetime.

"How?" Maddie asked, now clutching Jack's arm, eager to at least to have something to believe on.

Danny dug the bent, dusty card Greg had given him during the tryouts out of his pocket. "Greg Smith, a movie director, offered me a part in a movie. We could get tons of money that way."

Maddie handled the card in her hand. A sudden hope flickered within her. This was a way to get out of their money crisis, and oddly enough, she had always wanted one of her children to be on the big-screen. _Such a selfish wish_, she thought to herself.

"I think you should take it." Jazz said confidently, speaking for the first time in ages. "It would be fun. And I could work at the Nasty Burger or something. I had always wanted a job."

At this moment, Danny decided to accept the part in the movie. He had always wanted to be in a movie. And he could still find a way to keep his identity a secret at the same time. He had always seemed to know loopholes for every trouble that passed him, with the help of his friends.


	8. Meeting

**Enjoy. :]**

_Chapter 8: Meeting_

Danny sighed and lied down on the small couch. "Ugh. It's so boring here. There's no ghost stuff to fool around with." Danny never really thought he would ever miss Jack's foolish inventions, but he did very dearly.

"Well, we lost everything in the fire." Maddie informed him. "Did you do your homework?"

Danny nodded his head in response, and then slouched further in the couch. Boredom in a small space, Danny learned, was very bad for your sanity.

It has been a three days since the accident and the Fenton's had moved into a motel. A very small motel at that. There were two bedrooms; one for Jack and Maddie, and one for Danny and Jazz. They only had one cruddy bathroom, a small living room, and a kitchen where there was an unidentified substance living in the corner. The Fenton's had decided they would eat out until they found out what that was.

Police had come to their destroyed house and decided it was the cause of an accidental fire from ghost equipment in their lab. They told warned them that they would have to be more careful next time. Unfortunately, the government couldn't pay for any of the damage, and they couldn't fund enough money to pay for it. Sam said she would pay to build up their house but her parents "didn't want anything to do with those filthy Fenton's." And Vlad was out of the option. Anyways, he wouldn't answer his phone. Stubborn cheese head.

The Fenton's had gotten a little better after the disaster, since they had made a plan for what to do. But still, the sight of their burned down house had shaken them up. Sometimes Jazz would wake up screaming because of various dreams about their house. She never told anybody what they were about, but everyone knew what they were about. What else would cause Jazz nightmares? Jazz's screaming wasn't that good for Danny, who was sleeping near her, on the bed in the opposite side of the room.

Danny had called Greg saying he would like to try out for the part, which caused for a very happy movie director. At least somebody in this circle of healing was happy. Greg told him he would be very pleased for him to come to his place tomorrow to audition.

Maybe Danny's boredness was just because of the audition, like anxious anticipation. Danny groaned again.

"Gosh Danny," Jazz complained from the bedroom, where she was studying for an upcoming test. "You sound like a dying cow."

Danny smiled a little bit, although he had a slight anger inside of him. Their family had gotten close after moving to this motel, but in Danny's opinion, they had gotten too close. Danny had a hard time keeping his secret from his parents. Whenever Sam and Tucker came over, they had to use a poorly thought up code to talk in because anywhere in the house you could hear someone. Usually they spent their time talking in the lobby, at school, or at anywhere else except Danny's new home.

Danny had to be super careful when a ghost came. The blue flash of his transformation could be seen anywhere in the house, so he had to sneak out to turn to his ghostly self. For his ghost half, life pretty much stunk right now.

It was the next day, the day of the audition.

Danny woke up, full of adrenaline. School had gone past in a blur. Lancer had to strictly remind him to stay on task four times. And, oddly, he was slightly unaware when Dash gave him a beating. He even hardly payed any attention to his friends, losing focus every minute or so.

He walked home with Tucker and Sam, his footsteps quicker than usual.

"Geez, Danny. Slow down a little." Tucker complained, sweat trickling down his forehead.

Danny slowed his pace slightly. "Sorry. I'm just a little nervous." He confessed.

"Well, no way Danny. Anybody would be nervous if trying out for a movie. Even the town's hero." Sam commented, smiling.

"It's not just that. I mean, this audition could determine if we could pay off our debt or not. And it is kinda awkward tying out as myself." Even through all the stress, Danny could put in a little humor.

Sam nodded understandingly, her sympathizing self beginning to come out gradually "I see what you mean. Even if you don't get the part, all of us will be here for you."

"I know I will."Tucker said modestly. A smile formed on Danny's stressed face.

Danny flew around, as his ghost half right now, following the directions Greg had given him to his place. Flying was much better than walking or getting a ride in the Fenton Assault Vehicle. After a long while of searching, Danny finally found it.

This place matched Greg's description. It was a tall hotel, slightly out of the way of Amity Park. A giant sign was glowing over the white building, announcing that this place was called the Starlight Inn. You could also see some of the expensive blue drapes in the rooms above.

Danny hid behind a tree, transforming into his human self. He walked casually into to building, and then asked for Greg Smith at the counter. The person there told him his room number and commented that Greg was looking forward to seeing him with a fake smile. Danny figured Greg probably paid him to say that.

The teen went to the elevator, pressing the button for the six, and top, floor. Before it got there, the elevator stopped to pick up some more people. Four girls walked in, about Danny's age, but maybe a tad older. Danny noticed that every loud whisper or so, they would all glance at him quickly, stupidly thinking he wasn't aware that he knew they were looking at him. He heard giggles and whispers in the small packed space of the elevator, even though they weren't very audible.

The elevator stopped at the floor Danny wanted. Before he left one of the girls, a tall blonde, waved and flashed a smile at him, telling him goodbye in a phony voice. Danny just nodded, unaware of how beautiful she was, and then quickly walked through the elevator doors to freedom. He didn't care if he was rude. The nerves in him were multiplying rapidly.

He finally got to the right room; Room 616. Danny took deep breaths to calm him down, and then hesitantly knocked on the door. Nobody answered. Danny knocked again, a little more confident now that he knew there was no hope in turning back.

This time somebody answered. When Greg saw Danny, his face began to light up a little, a smile spreading across his face. Danny had no clue why this person liked him so much.

"Why, hello Danny. Right on time." Actually, Danny was a half hour late. "Come have a seat." Greg said, motioning to a fancy blue couch.

Danny sat down and Greg began talking, or more like rambling, as Danny would say.

"It is a pleasure to have you here today. Sorry that I don't have any of my other judges here today. They couldn't make it. Instead, I am going to tape your audition and show it to my fellow judges. If that's okay with you."

Danny nodded, knowing even if he spoke a protest, Greg wouldn't care.

Greg walked over to the camera. "I am going to turn on the camera now. Just ignore it. This could be pretty good practice if you do get the part." Greg looked at Danny with twinkles in his eyes. "The key to acting is to make everything natural. Don't overdo it."

Greg turned on the camera, and Danny figured that was his cue to start his audition, but he didn't know what to do.

"I am going to make your audition a little different." Greg explained. "Since I think you have a feeling you have potential. Just don't let anyone else know." Greg winked.

This Greg guy was getting a little on Danny's nerves. He was a nice guy, but just a little too nice.

"So I am going to give you a statement, and then you are going to repeat it with feeling. Of it helps, I will tell you which emotion to act out."

Danny found his head was nodding his head, when he realized he hadn't said anything to Greg all day. He decided to break that right now. "What should I say?" He asked.

"Hmmmm..." Greg thought, holding his hand on his chin, like the Thinker. "How about 'I don't believe you.' Act it like you are mad."

Danny sat up straighter. He gave himself a moment's silence to get angry, then finally shouted in rage. "I don't believe you!" He shouted with as much force as possible.

"So, I shouldn't be coaching you right now, but I will anyways." Greg said. "That was pretty good. A little too loud. It's not about the force of anger; it's about the feeling in it. Try again, and this time still pretend you are super mad at someone."

Danny closed his eyes and focused for a second. He thought of Vlad and all the anger he had brought into his life. "I don't believe you." He repeated again, and Greg could hear the quick improvement. This time Danny used his body posture and face formation to help him act out the emotion. His voice, almost sounding like it was smothered with malice, also helped Danny portray the emotion.

"Now say that same thing, but now be sad." Greg told Danny.

Danny sat and focused again, thinking of something to make him sad. He thought of the pain of losing his house, tears already welling in his face. "I don't believe you." Danny said, adding as much innocence and modesty to his voice as possible. Personally, Danny thought this audition was pretty, well, stupid. What kinds of person made someone just speak single lines? Greg was the so-called director, though, so he must know what he was doing.

"Good, good. I already see the improvement." Greg commented.

For the last ten minutes of the audition, Greg made Danny portray a couple more emotions, and do one scene of the movie. Greg smiled at times Danny did well, then had a face of doubt when he didn't do his best.

Finally it was over, and Danny left Greg's room, waving.

"I'll tell you when we come to a decision for your possible part. I will call to inform you." Greg told Danny, who was by the door.

Danny nodded then strolled out of the hotel. For some reason right now, Danny felt like walking instead of flying.

His heart was still pumping and adrenaline was still in his body. Usually Danny would have liked this feeling, but after all that stress, he just felt like resting.

Danny realized his walking pace had begun to be very quick. He took deep breaths to calm down and slowed down his walk.

He arrived someplace that seemed to be like the outskirts of town, when he had a sudden wave of Déjà Vu. And this wasn't a good thing; this brought back some very uncomfortable and recent memories.

* * *


	9. Bite

**Enjoy.**

_Chapter 9: Bite_

Danny looked around; trying to find out what was causing him this uncomfortable sensation of Déjà Vu. He couldn't find anything similar to his retched memory, except the notion that somebody, or _something_, was following him.

It was getting dark now, the nearby road lights creating an eerie feel to this place. Danny turned around, only to see his shadow. If this was a movie, there definitely would be scary music on right now. But this was real life, and the only sounds Danny had were his rapid heartbeat, loud breathing, and the occasional sounds of cars.

The loudest thing of all was his thoughts, which wouldn't stop screaming at him to run away. For some reason Danny didn't listen to his mind; his body was frozen in place. Danny felt like a deer in the road when a car comes. Just stay still and hope they don't notice you. Eventually when the deer found out the car was trouble it would stop staring at it and begin to run away. Exactly what Einstein Danny was going to do.

Seconds passed by, and the seconds turned into minutes. His mind finally processed that the danger was gone. Danny broke out of his still position and started to walk home again, but not trusting his judgment, every other moment he would stare into the piercing darkness looking for any movements.

That's when the growling started. First it was pleasant, sounding like a cat purring. Quickly it got louder and Danny could hear the viciousness and malice in the growl. Soon enough it was loud enough to have Danny almost unable to hear his thoughts, which were instinctively telling him to run away.

This time Danny listened. He began running, faster than he had in his whole life. He couldn't change into Danny Phantom because of the tons of cars on the nearby roads. Even with the loud pounding of his footsteps, Danny could hear growling.

While running, Danny could hear the sound of claws scratching on the sidewalk behind him. He was being followed. No, scratch that. He was being chased.

Danny couldn't look up to see his pursuer, but he had a feeling he soon would. Danny was getting exhausted now, sweat getting in his face and sticking to his shirt.

Danny tripped, and his tired body didn't have enough energy to stop his fall. He flew from what seemed a foot, and hit the surface of the hard sidewalk. His whole body was ringing from the fall, and a deafening headache was beginning to form.

His pursuer was by him now, its emerald-green eyes staring at him, giving him goose bumps.

His chaser was that squirrel. That evil squirrel. The squirrel that chased him in the forest about five days ago.

Danny called out for help, but the only sound that came out was a squeak. Not very helpful right now in this situation. There were no houses out here, and trees were in between the road and Danny. Nobody could see him. Nobody could help him.

Danny felt a devastating pain in his knees to his toes, and on his left arm. He looked at where the pain was coming from, and saw bright red blood on the sidewalk and on his body. The darkness and the moon, creating a shadow on everything around him, made the blood glow and shine.

Danny had a feeling his own little horror movie was forming right now.

The time had come. The evil squirrel's eyes turned to slits, looking at him. A growling came out of his chest, making his whole body tremble. Foam came out of its mouth, reminding Danny of dishwashing soap. Except regular soap didn't glow in moonlight and didn't have a greenish tint to it.

The last thing Danny heard was a scream, either from the squirrel or him, when he felt something bite him. Then everything turned black.

Danny woke up, daylight shining on him. For a second Danny thought he had died. He blocked out that thought when he felt pain all over his body.

Danny wondered where he was. He looked around and noticed a familiarity of this place. Then everything came back to him. He was in the same place as he was last night. He recollected the memories of the squirrel's menacing green eyes and body. Everything about that night Danny remembered. Which wasn't a good thing. Danny wanted to forget everything that had happened this week. He wanted it to have never happened.

But that was impossible. This was the real world. You can't change anything that happens to you like in a movie or book. What you get is what you keep.

Danny sat up and began inspecting his body. Even though the pain was unbearable, Danny had to see what condition he was in.

His head had a slight gash in it, but it wasn't that bad. Danny's arms were red and covered with blood, but had seemed to have stopped bleeding. There was a little black crust around the blood, which puzzled Danny.

Danny moved to look at his legs. They were black and dusty, with holes by the knees from the fall. He pulled up his right pant leg. From the knee to the middle of the bottom half of his leg was smothered with blood, looking slightly familiar as his arms. He pulled back down his jeans, and inspected his left leg.

This sight startled him. On his pants there was a green substance mixed with blood around the outside half of his ankle. Slowly he pulled the pant leg up, expecting the worse. First was the usually sight of blood, then when Danny looked at his ankle, the hair on his arms began to stand up. Sure, there was blood on his ankle, but there was also green flowing out of his ankle. It appeared to be gooey, looking like Jell-O.

After a while of thinking, Danny figured the green was ectoplasm. That worried him. Why was he bleeding ectoplasm? He only did that when he was a ghost.

Danny sat there for a while, his mind drifting. Finally he realized his family must be worried sick for him. He decided he better get home.

Using the palms of his hand and pure determination he finally got himself to stand up. Danny staggered for a moment, dizziness taking over his body. He found enough strength to keep himself up and began to walk home. Danny had a long way to go, about half a mile.

Danny had fallen a couple times already after walking half the distance home. He was just so exhausted. Danny fell on his knees again, unable to keep himself up. The sidewalk scraped his knees, and Danny was expecting more blood flow. But that didn't happen. Instead, the green ectoplasm substance began coming out of his knee.

Danny stared at it, as if the force of his mind could keep it from coming out. Obviously, that didn't work. His ghost blood shouldn't be coming out now. That's _not_ supposed to happen.

Danny was getting angry and frustrated about how he couldn't get home and the confusion that he had right now. He started poking at the ectoplasm when his whole arm disappeared. Sure, his arm was gone, but he could still feel it, which means that his arm was intangible. A wave of panic shot through Danny. This hadn't happened to him in a long time, ever since his first days as a ghost.

_Maybe I'm just tired_, Danny thought helplessly, trying to comfort him. Part of him was trying to comfort himself and make an excuse for this, but the other part of him knew something was wrong.

The last half of Danny's walk was torturous. His whole body was in pain, with shocks going through his body and every step he took felt like another blow. He was very tired, too, after getting no sleep for a while. Every once in a while Danny would have some part of his body go intangible, and sometimes ectoplasm would begin to bleed out of somewhere. All in all, that was the worst walk in Danny's life. Actually, it was the worst experience in his whole life.

Danny walked in the motel (his temporary home) cautiously, hoping nobody would see him in his condition. Luckily, no one was at the front counter. Danny got on the horrible elevator and went to his floor.

Danny stepped out once the doors opened and began to limp slowly to his room when he saw somebody that was way too familiar, somebody who Danny didn't want to see right now.


	10. Socialization

_Chapter 10: Socialization_

"Danny?" The person asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I would ask you the same thing, Valerie." Danny responded, his voice hoarse, which caused slight embarrassment on his part.

They were in the hallway of the motel right now, and the lights were dim, occasionally flickering. Danny shivered, realizing that he had a sudden fear of the dark that he never had before. He guessed it was because of that horrible night yesterday. He shivered, remembering.

"Danny?" Valerie asked, ignoring Danny's earlier comment. "Are you okay?" She looked at Danny, as if evaluating him. She noticed the dried blood on his body, the green on his leg, and the pain and discomfort in Danny's expression. She'd never seen him like this, and she surprisingly felt sorry for him, despite everything they had been through together.

"I guess." Danny muttered. Valerie could tell he was in more pain than he was letting on.

Danny limped toward the door, searching for a key, but never found it. He knocked on the door and stood there, waiting for someone to answer. Nobody did.

Valerie caught on with what was going on. "You want to stay at my place for a while? I mean, until your family gets home."

Danny's face turned slightly paler. He couldn't believe what Valerie was asking her. Valerie, one of his enemies, but also someone who was very close to him for a while. Danny searched her eyes for any sign of emotion, but caught none.

Did she regret ever breaking up with him?

Danny nodded feebly, and Valerie nodded then began to walk toward her room. They had only walked a couple feet when Valerie opened the door to her room.

Danny realized that he and Valerie were neighbors. He mentally groaned.

Valerie led him to the couch, and Danny sat on it happily. Even though this couch wasn't the best, he was still grateful to be resting on one.

Valerie had headed off to her kitchen and came back with some water and cookies. Danny grabbed the water, but tried not to gulp it down to fast. While Danny was eating, Valerie had gone off to get a first aid kit.

She told Danny to put his leg on the table, which was right in front of him. She then began to clean Danny's right leg with some antibacterial liquid. Danny winced with pain when Valerie smothered it on his leg, and tried stubbornly to pull it away.

"Danny, do you want to get infected or not?" Valerie scolded him, like she was years older than him.

Danny sat motionless, but still feeling the pain the antibacterial stuff was giving him. Valerie was nice enough to help him in his time of need, so he had to return her charity with kindness, no matter how much he hated doing it.

Valerie had finished treating his right leg and turned to his right leg. She began to roll up his jeans when Danny looked at her, his eyes full of alarm.

"You shouldn't do that. You might get sick or something." He told Valerie, trying to say something that would make her stop. He didn't want Valerie to see the ectoplasm on his leg since she might be able to recognize it since she had fought many ghosts before. She had probably seen ectoplasm a bunch of times.

"I don't think so. Now just let me clean this so you don't get sick." She began to roll up his pant leg again, with Danny trying to stop her, but to Valerie it was like fighting off a fly.

Danny closed his eyes, as if closing them would stop time. Danny heard no sound of alarm from Valerie. He opened his eyes cautiously. The ectoplasm wasn't there. Either it had disappeared or Valerie had cleaned it before Danny had opened his eyes. Danny hoped it was the first option.

While she was cleaning her leg, Danny felt his left arm become weightless. He looked at it, and saw no arm. Alarm shot through him and he cursed mentally to himself. There was nothing nearby to hide his invisible arm. Danny focused his energy on making his arm visible again. Slowly from the top of his shoulder blades to the tip of his hands he became visible. Luckily Valerie was too busy treating his leg to notice whatever had just happened to him.

After a while, she finished treating Danny's legs, and he began to feel a little refreshed. Valerie moved up to his bruised and scraped arm and began cleaning.

"Why are you helping me anyway? I thought you hated me." Danny asked her, deciding to make conversation.

She sat there, cleaning his arm for a moment in silence. "I guess a feel a little sorry for you. Whatever had happened to you, it had made you bleeding and weak." She began to rub his arm more slowly with the towel. Danny noticed she was deep in thought. There was more she wanted to say. He nodded his head in encouragement for her to continue.

Valerie glanced at him and began talking again."I felt sorry for you because of your pain, but when I saw you in the motel earlier today I felt more. I guess part of regretted breaking up with you, but the other part is happy that I did it so I could focus on other things. I don't know. I still haven't sorted things out yet." Danny could hear the emotion in her voice and realized that she actually felt like that. He would have said something to her, but he just didn't have the energy. He closed his eyes and began to sleep.

Meanwhile, Valerie was walking getting a blanket for Danny after she had finished treating him. When she found one, a checkered quilt that she had gotten from her grandma, she went over and put the blanket carefully over Danny. She made sure that Danny was as comfortable as she could get him.

Valerie began to leave the room, when she noticed how innocent and cute Danny looked in his sleep. She felt horrible for still liking Danny, if only a little bit, even after breaking up with him.

Valerie stopped and just took a good look at Danny, something she hadn't done in a long time. Suddenly, the blanket that was covering Danny's arm fell off and dropped to the cushions of the couch. She walked over to put the blanket back on and gasped. His arm wasn't there. She closed her eyes for a second, and then opened them. It still wasn't there.

Valerie became worried. She went over and touched the spot gently where his arm should have been. She realized she could feel the soft skin of his arm. Why could she feel his arm, but couldn't see it? Valerie shook her head in confusion. Maybe she just needed some sleep.

Valerie got ready to go to sleep, going through her usual bedtime procedure. Before she went to her bedroom to sleep, she walked over to check on Danny. He arm was there, completely visible.

"Huh." Valerie muttered. "Maybe I'm just going crazy." Valerie walked slowly to her bed, the whole time knowing she wasn't just seeing things. She wasn't crazy.

Something strange was going on with Danny, and she wanted to find out. No, she was going find out.


	11. Answers

_Chapter 11: Answers_

Danny slowly sat up on the couch, awake; trying to comprehend what was going on. He was in a motel room, his body feeling slightly better on a couch. Then he remembered. He was at Valerie's after being locked out because his family was gone.

Danny decided to test to see how much he had healed since two days ago. He moved his arms, and was barely able to lift them up from the side of his body. He tried to get up, but the soreness of his muscles made it so hard to move. He could hardly move anything, which made Danny really angry. He hoped he would get better soon.

While Danny was trying to make himself move at least two inches, when Valerie walked in. She was still expecting to see Danny lying on the couch, like yesterday. That's what Valerie would have done. She wouldn't have had the guts to move right away after whatever had happened to him. She wondered how he had gotten in this condition, but was afraid to ask…she would ask later.

Valerie walked to her closet in her bedroom and dug out some crutches. She went back to the living room where Danny was still trying to get himself to walk. His face was set in a determined expression, and Valerie knew that right now wouldn't be the right time to interrupt.

She decided to see what Danny would do for a couple minutes. He sat up from the couch again, his body shaking from the pain, and shuffled forward one step. His arms were dangling weakly for the side of his body, and his legs seemed slightly limp. Actually, to Danny, his whole body felt like it wasn't even there. Valerie tried to empathize how horrible it felt to Danny right now.

Valerie looked away, towards the kitchen, to think about what she should make for Danny, when she heard a crash. She turned around, and saw Danny sprawled on the floor. For a second she swore that his legs were gone, but when she looked back, they were there on his body.

She ran towards him, offering a hand to help him up. "No. I think if I'm going to be like this for a while, I think I should get used to it." Danny grunted while he tried to push himself back up.

"Please." Valerie begged. "Just let me help you. If you keep going on like this, you're going to get hurt."

Danny fell back in to the ground, obviously too tired to try to get up. "Ugh. Fine." He held up his hand for Valerie to pull.

Slowly Valerie pulled Danny up, and motioned him to sit on the couch. Danny sat down, relived to be on a comfy surface again.

"Here." Valerie handed Danny the blue crutches. "You can use these to help you walk."

Danny glanced at them, and his face slowly formed a smile. "Blue. Nice."

Valerie started smiling now. Somehow blue crutches were funny, but she didn't know why. "Yeah. I kind of got them when I broke my leg a couple years ago."

Danny looked up at Valerie, his face confused. "You broke your leg? I never knew that."

"Yeah. In seventh grade. Second quarter. I tripped over a log." Valerie commented, almost on the verge of blushing. She had talked to Danny many times before, but never really on a personal level, like discussing things from the past.

"You? Tripped over a log? Sure, maybe I could see Tucker doing that, but not you." Danny laughed a little bit, but soon realized it hurt in his lungs when he laughed. Danny hated that dang squirrel right now.

Suddenly Danny realized something, and once he did, it felt like he was being slapped. He had never noticed that Valerie had ever broken her leg. In fact, he didn't even remember seeing her in seventh grade. He only started paying attention to her in high school. Danny felt really stupid right now, his face begging to feel hot.

Danny tried to push out the thought on how oblivious he was, but he just couldn't forget. Slowly, as a distraction, Danny balanced on the crutches and started to walk. It was still hard to walk with crutches. Besides almost breaking his leg, he was close to breaking his arm. His body felt weak, and every once in a while he would lose feeling in some part of his body. Most of the times his whole body felt like it was being stabbed by pins, or smashed.

Danny had no clue what that venomous squirrel had done to him. He shook his head, mad.

Danny's thought were interrupted by Valerie. "Hey, Danny, why don't you sit down while I get you some food?"

As if stomach was listening to the teen, it growled. Valerie let out a giggle then walked to the kitchen.

Danny sat down, careful not to crash into anything. He sat down successfully, avoiding embarrassment.

In a couple of minutes Valerie came out with perfectly made eggs, bacon, toast, and a glass of orange juice. She sat the plate on the table in front of Danny. He just stared at it.

"Umm...Danny? Aren't you going to eat?" Valerie asked, confused. She didn't want her cooking to go to waste.

"I can't move my arm." Danny replied weakly, with a tiny smile on his face. Valerie picked up the fork, and slowly moved the eggs into Danny's mouth.

"Here comes the Choo Choo train!" Valerie teased her voice sounding like she was talking to a little kid. Gosh, did Danny feel like an idiot right now. He even tried to avoid the utensil with a turn of his head, but decided against it figuring it was better to co-operate. After a while, Valerie finally finished feeding Danny. There was a long silence.

"Danny?" Danny looked at Valerie, curious on what she was going to ask, but had a little feeling what her question was going to be. "I don't want to be intruding or anything, but who or what hurt you so badly?"

Danny was in no state to tell her he was attacked by a tiny, nut-eating rodent. "I fell down the stairs." He responded, hearing the lie on his tongue once he said it.

"Yeah, right. So you are pretty clumsy, but I wouldn't believe that. Then where did you get those bite marks from? Did the stairs bite you?" She wondered, her sarcasm beginning to show.

"Okay, so I didn't fall down the stairs. But I think it'd be better if I didn't tell. It's pretty ridiculous, and no way would you believe me anyways." Danny said, his voice strained. He could stall, but eventually Valerie would make him voice the truth to her.

"Oh please. I'll believe anything you say, except nonsense about falling down the stairs. Anyways, you owe me at least a little bit."

Drat. Danny knew eventually that accepting Valerie's help would backfire. He decided on one last shot. "Who ever said anything about owing anyone? It was you who offered for me to stay here." Danny had tried his best to sound fierce, but his voice didn't seem to be working for him, and just ended up sounding ten times quieter that he had anticipated.

"And it was you who accepted. You could have walked away. Danny, I care about you. Like a friend. All I want is to know what honestly happened to you, and then I'll back off. That's all I ask." Valerie picked up the remnants of Danny's lunch and dishes, and turned around towards the kitchen, her long glossy hair hanging down.

"Fine." Danny muttered, his head down, and his long ragged hair falling down his scratched face. "If you need to know; I was attacked. By a squirrel."

"A squirrel? Since when do people get attacked by squirrels?" The female teen let out a laugh, figuring it was another one of his silly attempts to deny the truth. Danny had a feeling this was going to be difficult.

"It wasn't like a regular squirrel. It looked possessed or something. You should have seen it. It had these horrible green eyes and venom coming out..." Although Danny couldn't use his hands to describe, his eyes told it all. They were wide, while his mind was replaying that horrible day for the hundredth time. His memory always ended with him shivering.

"Okay, I believe you." She could understand now where the bite marks came from and everything. She was still a little curious but she didn't want to push it. Danny was miserable as it was already.

Danny's face still had this scared expression on it. Valerie had always remembered Danny as a strong person, during times when Dash took a beating on him, but now she knew behind all of that, was some pain, which was coming out right now.

Valerie put her arm around Danny to comfort him. Slowly his face turned back to normal and he stopped shaking. Valerie tried to visualize what had happed to Danny that day. She came up with nothing.

Suddenly the phone rang. Valerie slowly unwrapped her arm around Danny and went to the phone. She answered it. "Hi. Yes, this is Valerie. Yes. Really? Oh, thanks! Ok. Friday. Bye!"

She skipped back to Danny, suddenly happy.

"What's this all about?" Danny was asking about Valerie's sudden cheerfulness. Maybe she was bi-polar.

"Well, you know that movie?" She didn't wait for Danny to answer, caught in her own excitement. "I made one of the main roles!"

"Really?" Danny's face had a mix of surprise and happiness."Who are you?"

"Susan." Valerie smiled.

"Great job!" Danny faked his enthusiasm, now realizing if he got the part he would be stuck filiming with none other than Valerie. There was silence after that, although it seemed Valerie's smile was screaming at him enough as it was already.

"I guess I better go." Danny told her. "My parents are probably home now." Danny tried to get up, but only with Valerie's help. Valerie led Danny to the room next door, Danny's room. She knocked on the door for him. Jazz answered.

"Valerie? Danny?" Jazz's face showed her surprise. It was almost in a perfect 'O' shape. "What happened to you?"

"I'll tell you later. Please just let me in." Danny walked in his room, but not without thanking Valerie.

Before Danny could begin his story, the phone rang.


	12. The Call

_Chapter 12: The Call_

Danny picked up the receiver, failing a couple times due to his hand constantly shaking and his blood pumping so hard. Why was he acting this way? It could just be Tucker or Sam calling about a recent ghost seeing or something or that sort. But part of him, the logical part, didn't believe that.

"Hello?" Danny asked cautiously, trying to sound casual while leaning against a nearby chair for support.

"Hello." A vaguely familiar professional-sounding voice responded. "Is this the Fenton's?"

"Yes." Danny answered, now knowing who exactly this was. He was about voice this thought out loud, but he got beat to the point before he could even take a breath to ask.

"This is Greg Smith. May I speak to Danny?" The pumping blood in his body began to grow faster, making him even more nervous.

"Speaking." This conversation was getting stranger by the minute. For some reason it reminded Danny of moldy cheese.

"Yes. I have the results of your audition." There was a slight pause, and then Greg continued, as if contemplating whether or not he should tell Danny the news. Danny had a strange feeling that this would not turn out well. Actually any way this turned out would not be good. He could just feel the sparks of dramatic tension building up. Danny found himself wondering if Valerie's phone call from Greg had been this awkward.

Danny could hear pages flipping on the other line. "Yes. There it is..." Wow. Wasn't he just very prepared? He didn't even do a real audition and he had paper for it. Well, the judges did look at the tape. "...The judges loved you. So did I. You have gotten the part of Danny Phantom." He congratulated.

Danny let out a sigh of relief.

Greg continued talking, as if getting the part wasn't enough news. "You will be receiving a contract in the mail soon. Just that normal stuff." He said that like everyone got mail about being in a movie. Greg slowly realized when Danny didn't give him an answer he didn't know. "It's just acting stuff, legal things, stunt double. And you will be getting your rough draft of a script. We might revise some things later. And you will be having a couple sessions with professionals, just to make your acting better. But don't worry; we will explain everything to you later. "

"Okay. Thanks." Danny was speechless. This Greg guy could sure talk a lot. It was like he was talking a mile a minute.

"See you later. Tell me if you don't get anything in the mail. Bye." Danny could hear the phone hang up on the other line.

Danny used all the rest of energy he had to put the phone back down, his muscles aching. He groaned. All his usual things he did everyday had now become harder on a whole new level.

He looked up from the ground, which he suddenly realized wasn't all that boring. He was welcomed by Jazz's confused expression.

"Yes?" Danny asked. It looked like Jazz was deciding what questions to ask him first. Danny was deciding if he should ask his questions first or let his sister break the ice.

"Who was that?" Jazz asked after a moment's silence. "Wait. Hold that thought for a second." Jazz took Danny by the shoulder blades, unaware of the pain she was causing him, and led him to the kitchen table. His sister began to cook up a cup of hot chocolate and grilled cheese. Which wasn't that good of a combination, but Danny would have eaten anything right now.

She sat down next to Danny, handing him his plate of food. Jazz began eating while Danny stared at his food, attempting to eat it without his hands, like a dog.

"Um..Danny?" Jazz asked after taking a sip of her hot coco. "Are you okay?"

"Yes. I just kinda got in an accident earlier." Danny gestured with his head to the crutches nearby. "I'm kinda sore all over. Can't move. The normal." He tried shrugging, only to end up flinching in pain. He wished his body would turn down the pain a notch.

"Oh. Gosh." Jazz hurried up from her seat and grabbed a straw from a nearby drawer and stabbed it in Danny's drink. Danny leaned over and began drinking while he watched his sister try to find something to help his eat his grilled cheese.

"You know Jazz," Danny commented after bending down to taking a sip of his drink. "You could just feed me yourself."

Jazz flung her arms down in defeat and set down the ham pitchfork she was about to use. "I guess I will have to."

Jazz walked over to him, picking up the grilled cheese carefully, as if it could be a bomb. She picked it up, and unlike Valerie, just fed him without any two-year-old sound effects.

Danny finally finished, now feeling slightly better with food in his stomach. "Thanks, Jazz."

"Welcome." Danny's sister responded over the rush of the sink where she was cleaning up all the plates.

Danny sat on the kitchen chair, reaching for his crutches. Once he has successfully gotten them, he limped toward the couch, carefully sitting down on the rock-like cushions.

"Hey, Jazz?" Jazzy looked up from the plate she was scrubbing. "Why were you gone for so long?" Danny didn't bother mentioning that because of them not coming home; he had been in a hotel room all alone with Valerie.

"Well, after school on Friday we knew you left for auditions. Mom decided we should go out to eat to some family bonding. Soon we were looking at houses for sale." Jazz explained. "Then our dad decided he wanted us to sleep in one of these houses. 'To test them out.' he had told us. Just this morning we got home, and now mom and dad are shopping for food for us."

"Oh." Danny sighed. At least they had a fairly good reason that they were gone for so long.

"And..." Jazz trailed off for a second. "Who called before?" Gosh, she was so direct.

"It was Greg." Danny responded after a moment's silence. He had a feeling that his sister was about to ask what Greg had said, so he just continued before she had to waste anymore lip muscle. "He called to tell me that I had made the part," Danny could see her face light up at this. "He told me that papers were coming and the script I could look at."

"Wow. That's amazing!! Do you realize how many people don't even get the chance to be in movie?" Jazz embraced Danny in a great bear hug, not even bothering her recent question to be answered.

Danny flinched slightly. "Ouch." He would have rubbed his sore shoulders, but his hands were sore too.

Soon Jazz was celebrating silently since Danny could hardly move a muscle.

"By the way, what did happen to you?" Jazz asked after her one-man celebration was over.

Danny began into his story, a little hesitant at first, but soon explaining everything with different expressions every sentence. He described the audition, the evil squirrel, and miserable walk home. He told about the night with Valerie, and how he had been bleeding ectoplasm. Jazz only interrupted once in a while with a laugh or cough or with a question.

"Wow." Jazz said once his story was over. "That's more excitement I will get in my life."

"Not helping." Danny tried to glower at her, but it had become harder for some reason. His frown gradually turned into a smile.

Jazz looked at the clock. "It's late and you have school tomorrow. I will try to figure something out after some rest. You should too."

"Okay." Danny responded.

Jazz helped him get into bed, reminding Danny of those disabled old men. Danny lied in bed long after Jazz had left, still trying to get to sleep. But that wave of slumber wouldn't come. He had heard mom and dad come home, kissing Danny on the cheek. He felt Jazz go to sleep on the other bed later that night. Why couldn't he go to sleep?

Then a wave a realization came over him.

Tomorrow was school.

Let the torture begin.


	13. School, the Worst Place on Earth

**Enjoy, and thanks for reading.**

_Chapter 13: School, the Worst Place on Earth_

Danny lurched his body up from his bed, yelling. That was a first. He always seemed to sleep so peacefully. And this was one of his most un-peaceful nights ever, but these days Danny was having a lot of firsts.

The whole night Danny's body would twitch and have horrible spasms. There was no end. Plus, he was still highly aware of the horrible pain throughout his body. He felt like he was being stabbed my needles. Danny hardly got any sleep the whole night. In between spasms, his night was haunted by dreams of evil squirrels, killer ghosts, crazy movie directors, flying needles, and wild classmates. It was like all his fears had come together to torture him in his dreams.

He turned his head over to Jazz's bed. At least he had gained enough strength to do that. He saw Jazz scrub her eyes a little with her hands and sit up. Slowly Jazz rolled of her bed. Danny had a feeling whatever he was doing that night had kept her up for a long time. She walked to the doorway, only to turn around.

"Bad dream?" She asked, sleepily. But Danny thought he could hear the hint of concern in her tone.

"Yes." Danny croaked. Boy, that was embarrassing. "Hey, Jazz," Danny suddenly remembered. "So you think you could get me the phone?"

"Sure. I'll get you some breakfast while I am at it." A second later Jazz came back, with the phone in hand.

"Do you think you can dial the number by yourself?" She asked. That slightly offended him; he could do things for himself. But Danny knew she just didn't want him to hurt himself even more...dialing a phone.

He sighed, and then nodded. Jazz dropped the phone on the bed and headed off to make breakfast for the both of them.

Danny used whatever strength he had, trying to ignore the pain, to dial Sam's number into the phone. Slowly he put it on speaker.

_Well, haven't I just reached an ultimate low, _Danny thought angrily to himself, _I can't even dial a phone._

He heard ringing, and finally someone answered. "Hello?" a voice asked politely. Right away Danny knew who that was.

"It's me, Danny." Sam let out a sigh of relief. She always put on a sweet tone for her parent's friends, who she absolutely hated talking to. Sam had once told Danny that they sounded like such snobs, even worse than Paulina.

"Hey Danny. No hello?" Sam asked, laughing a bit.

"Hello, then." Danny laughed too, but his tone slowly turned serious.

That's when Sam noticed that something was wrong with Danny. "Everything's okay?" She wondered. This was why Sam and Danny were such close friends. They knew everything about each other, even when one of them wasn't feeling right.

"Um…do you have an extra wheel chair?" Danny asked quietly.

Sam giggled slightly. "Wheelchair?"

"Yeah. I know it sounds weird, but can you bring it over today before school?" Danny's voice might have betrayed a little bit of his urgency. "I'll explain everything to you later."

"Ok. I have to get ready for school anyways. See you then...I guess." Danny could hear the stomps of Sam's parents coming to her room.

"Ok." Then they both hung up. Danny plopped on his bed, with nothing to do but worry. He had a feeling this day could not turn out well.

Minutes later, Jazz walked in, with a plate of eggs and bacon in her hands. She set it on a nearby table then walked back to the kitchen to get two glasses of orange juice; one for Danny and one for herself.

Jazz sat down on the couch and began feeding Danny slowly. The whole time Danny was muttering his thanks to his sister.

When Danny was in mid-bite of his eggs, there was a knock on the door. Danny was about to tell his sister to get it, but instead Maddie, who apparently was up now, got the door. From the corner of Danny's eye he could see Sam walk in, pushing a wheelchair.

"Is Danny here?" Same asked politely

"Yes. He is in his room. You know where that is, right?" Maddie asked, pointing to the left.

"Yes, I do." Sam walked to Danny's room, where she saw Jazz right next to him, eating her breakfast. "Wow. Sibling Bonding." she grunted.

Danny tried to turn over to get a better view of Sam, but he couldn't. His body wouldn't work with him. Jazz realized what he was trying to do and gently helped his body adjust to the new situation. "Thanks." He whispered to Jazz. That seemed like the only word he was saying these days.

Danny finally looked at Sam, for the first time in half a week, and at the moment he felt like he could live through this. He had friends and (partially clueless) family to support him. Now he realized what these people were for. He smiled. At least it didn't hurt to do that.

"Hey Sam." Danny greeted. Sam said a happy hello back, and then she began getting to work.

The second time he had been operated on in this week, and not even by doctors.

"Why did you even bring a first aid kit in the first place?" Danny asked while she was replacing his dirty leg bandages with new, fresh ones.

"Well, by the sound of your voice you sounded hurt. Secondly, when a teenage boy asks for a wheelchair, you get the thought he will be using it for something stupid, like wheelchair races. But I knew you really needed it." She smiled, although Danny couldn't see.

"Well, thank you. I am so glad you came." Sam glanced at Danny, then her face suddenly had a hint of surprise in it, and she stopped bandaging his leg. A second later she composed herself and started to operate on him again. Danny thought it was nothing.

Sam began operating on Danny in silence, when she suddenly had an idea. She opened the first aid kit and dug out a hand-sized mirror. "Would you like to see yourself?" Sam asked.

"Why do want me to look at my reflection?" Danny asked while he grabbed the mirror.

"Trust me. You might want to see." Sam told him.

Danny slowly pulled up the mirror, ignoring the pain it involved. He didn't want to seem weak in front of Sam. He stared at his reflection for one long moment, not comprehending anything. His face looked the same. He moved the mirror along, ignoring the occasional bandages along his face. Then he saw it. His eyes, normally blue, and turned a ghostly green. He gasped.

"See what I mean?" Sam told him after seeing his surprise.

He nodded, but was too absorbed in his Phantom eyes. How could this happen? Maybe it was related to when he turned invisible a couple times. He couldn't go to school like this. He could skip, but an odd feeling told him he shouldn't.

It felt like Sam was reading his mind. "Do you want to go to school? I mean, you are in no condition to go."

"I don't know why, but I think I should." Danny said, half sure.

"I'll get some sunglasses." Jazz spoke up, for the first time in a long while. Sam nodded.

A moment later Danny's sister came back with Danny's old sunglasses from last year when they were going to go to Florida, but didn't once they found out that they were invited to a ghost convention in town. These sunglasses seemed human enough.

Jazz looked at her watch. "We have ten more minutes until school if we walk and twenty-five if we get a ride."

Sam and Danny looked at each other. "Walk." they said in unison. They were way too familiar with Jack's driving, and always tried their best to avoid it whenever they could.

"Well, duh." Sam joked under her breath. "You can't even walk anyways." She cracked a smile.

"Walking it is." Jazz said. "You take care of Danny while I get ready. I haven't had time all day." Jazz noticed the clueless expression on Sam's face. "You know, helping Danny? Deodorant, brush teeth, change clothes..."

Sam shook her head. "I think I'll just do the deodorant one and brush teeth. The third one can be taken care of with some good, old, Fbreezze."

Jazz walked out of the room shaking her head. "Just make sure he is clean. I don't want a stinky brother in the same school as me."

Sam began to tend for Danny the moment Jazz left. She went to the bathroom, and grabbed some manly deodorant, and Danny's toothbrush and toothpaste. She began the lather the deodorant on, and then brushed Danny's teeth. After that, she found some Fbreeze and sprayed it all over him; just enough for people to think his parents used too much soap when washing his clothes. She opened her first aid kit and found some medicine, and filled a glass of water in the kitchen. She handed the pill and the cup o' water to him. Danny felt like an old man in a nursing home.

Danny took them both and swallowed the pill with the help of the water. He figured the medicine was some kind of pain reliever.

Finally, after a long ten minutes of random last minute tasks, they were done, and it was time to go to school. Jazz and Sam helped Danny get placed in his wheelchair. From the looks of it, it wasn't such a difficult task to lift a fairly heavy teenage boy. That surprised Danny a little bit, for some reason. He guessed everything seems like a surprise when you can hardly lift up a spoon.

This wheelchair was one of those fancy ones where you move the little joystick to the left or right and that would be where you go. Very convenient for Danny's situation. That way he wouldn't have to have someone push him around all day.

Danny put his sunglasses on, and moved his wheelchairs joystick to go through that doorway out to the hall. Jazz and Sam followed. Since the stairs weren't an option; they didn't want Danny rolling down the stair in a wheelchair, they decided they would take the elevator.

Once the exciting elevator ride was over, they very slowly got out and headed out the door, with curious stares coming from guests at the hotel.

Once outside, the trip began to go faster. During the twenty minute trip, Danny explained how he had come to this "disabled state" for the third time. Although three wasn't very much, he was getting tired of telling this story. Every time he told it, those nightmarish memories had come back.

Sam, like the others had interrupted with questions, comments, and the occasional laugh. For some reason, Danny enjoyed telling this story to Sam. It made him feel slightly better, like he had gotten a load off his chest.

Finally the trio had gotten to school, and Danny had an eerie calm come over him. Probably because he couldn't turn back now.

Jazz left them to go to her classes, and Danny and Sam went to the office.

"Hello, there." The receptionist said. She seemed slightly awed at the sight of Danny in a wheelchair. From the look of it, Danny could tell she was wondering whether or not she should ask him what happened, like all the other people that saw him seemed to be thinking.

"Yeah. Do you think I could have a pass for my classes? I need to lead Danny to his classes, and I will probably not have enough time to get to mine without being tardy."

"Sure." the lady said. Danny looked at her name tag. Mrs. Goodweather. _Well, I guess that is a positive enough name_, he thought to himself. "And may I ask you for your name?"

"Sam Manson." Sam responded. Mrs. Goodweather scribbled on a piece of paper then handed it to Sam. "There you go, dear."

"Thank you." Then they left, to head to their first class.

Luckily, Danny and Sam had the same class first. Language Arts, with Mr. Lancer. That part was unlucky.

They came in the room, slightly late, but Lancer seemed to pass the tardy-ness after seeing Danny in a wheelchair. The whole class period Lancer babbled on about Shakespeare, complete with all his achievements and faults. The bell rang, and all the kids sighed in unison.

"Kids," Lancer announced before they all left. "No homework for today but be prepared. Tomorrow there will be a quiz." Everyone sighed, complaining to their neighbors about the upcoming quiz.

The rest of the day went the same. Sam would lead Danny to his classes, then leave to go to hers, unless they shared a class. Danny would endure lectures from teachers, and have occasionally had to write something or do a worksheet. Then he would have to have someone help him. Most of the time it was Tucker or Sam, or other people who were actually nice enough to help him.

Every once in a while, a part of Danny's body would go invisible, which would send a wave of panic through him. Concentrating hard, he made his body visible again. Danny hoped nobody saw.

By lunch there were rumors going around about Danny's injuries.

"I heard his parents beat him up."

"No. He insulted a bully and they got into a fight."

"He jumped off a cliff."

"Food poisoning."

And so forth. It was torture. Danny was a person who hated to be the talk of the school, unless it was about his ghost half. He liked to stand and watch the gossip, not be the target. Some brave people had gone up to him and asked him what had happened. Every time Danny said he was in an accident. Eventually he had built up the lie to say that he had gotten in a car accident. That seemed normal enough. At least they didn't know the truth, and hopefully Valerie didn't blurt it to anybody either.

Danny's stress became worse when in his last hour class, geometry, when he received a note from the teacher.

"I don't know what this is, but it was addressed to you." the teacher whispered in Danny's ear. Again, all eyes were on him.

It was an official looking letter, and Danny was stuck clueless by it. Since when does he get very important letters? Danny guessed that anything could be possible after being attacked by a squirrel.

Danny opened the letter with his bandages hand, slightly struggling, but trying not to show it.

_Dear Danny, _It read.

_Apparently those acting lessons I told you about were scheduled for last week, but our teacher had arrived early from her last teaching. Now we will have lessons for this week at the Casper High School from 6-8 pm. Sorry for the inconvenience. But please be warned that these lessons are mandatory and try to be there on time, please. Tell me if you won't be able to go. _

_With luck, _

_Greg Smith. _

Below his signature was his phone number and his office address. So very official.

Great. Now he would have to go to acting lessons while being almost handicapped and in a wheelchair.

Everything just kept on getting worse and worse these days. It was like Friday the thirteenth in one week.


	14. Lessons

_Chapter 14: Lessons_

"Are you ready to go?" Jazz asked from her bead, beginning to roll over to push herself up in a sitting position.

Danny sighed. "I guess." He'd just taken some fancy tasting Advil and was waiting for it to come in action. Meanwhile, he was doing finger push-ups and kicking the wall. Supposedly this was going to help his hurting muscles loosen up. Well, that's what the school nurse believed.

Jazz grabbed the handlebars of his wheelchair and began to push him out to the hallway.

Danny coughed, and instantly Jazz raised her eyebrows at him. The black-haired teenager just nodded his head towards the joystick attached to the wheelchair.

"Pushing you makes me feel at least the slightest bit important." Jazz commented, and Danny dropped the subject.

Soon enough they had arrived at Casper High seeming not like the school they normally went to. The two students were used to teenagers running around and buses present in many roads.

Slowly they walked in, trying to find Danny's room for lessons.

"You're not nervous, are you?" Jazz asked. "You haven't been talking at all."

Silence. Then finally, "No, I think I'm okay. This sounds fun." But deep inside, Danny was afraid about his secret identity, and having Greg and his crew thinking he didn't have enough potential for this movie, and lastly, about the physical damage that had suddenly happened to him.

His parents had just witnessed Danny's handicap position only a couple hours beforehand. Maddie and Jack both, being the loving parents they were, freaked out. Danny tried to calm them down, saying it wasn't that bad, and that he just was riding Tucker's bike to town, when it fell out from under him. Greg happened find out, and immediately ordered him to be in a wheelchair to speed up the healing process. Luckily, they both shrugged it off, and went back to their usual business. Danny hoped all his lies would never catch up with him.

A fair-looking middle aged woman walked by the Fenton's a moment later. She had long brown hair and bright blue eyes. It seemed like you could see everything about her in those eyes. Her skin was a potato-like tan, matching her sporty body. All together, you would swear she was a movie star too.

"Hello, I'm October Louis." She reached out her hand and shook it with Danny. She had never expected their actor for the starring role to be a handicapped boy. "And I believe you are Danny Fenton."

Danny nodded, and October lead him to a classroom, oddly enough, was Lancer's language room. October closed the door, and sat down in a nearby chair, offering Danny to drive over by her.

"So we are here to learn some acting tips, or lessons, or whatever you would enjoy calling it. I guess I should tell you some things about myself." October began to explain passionately about how she was inspired to do this job, and telling about some famous stars she had tutored. A moment later, she was finished. "So, what about you? Anything you would like to say about yourself?" She asked.

Danny decided he liked her better than Greg. "I don't know...except that I go to Casper High School, and I think this is a great opportunity for me." Boy, he was just so nervous and dying to impress her. He didn't want to mess up one bit, and get the boot.

October nodded like that was the most intelligent thing she had ever heard. She continued on to have Danny start to do some improvisation with her.

"The point of this," She explained, "Is to strengthen your acting abilities and to help you when you come upon different situations."

The rest of their session just contained of facial expressions and tips and tricks October had for him. Like, to tape a ton of onions under his shirt during emotional, teary scenes. They had even tried it out, and successfully achieve a teardrop after the fifth onion.

By the end of the lesson, Danny had been laughing, forgetting about his sore muscles, and all traces of his nervousness were gone.

But before Danny left, October handed him the script and told him to look through it. They would be working on these tomorrow.

Immediately after Danny had arrived home, he began to page through the script. Looking first at the cast:

_Danny Phantom...Danny Fenton_

_Susan Baker...Valerie Grey_

_Arianne Ghoul...Paulina Sanchez_

_Max Day...Dash Baxter_

_Technus...Tucker Foley_

Danny laughed at the last one. Additionally, there were many other cast members, some having been in previous movies, and some not, but these were the main people in the film.

Danny paged through the rest of the script, beginning to get the feel of the plot and such. Basically, Danny was dating a beautiful ghost, Arianne Ghoul, and they were planned to get married in their later years. But Max Day, a "handsome" rich ghost, was in love with Arianne also.

So Max and Danny get in this huge fight, and Danny in the one who gets banished out of the ghost zone because of it. They open a portal, where Danny gets lost in the human world. Soon he meets an average high-school student, Susan Baker. They become very close friends, and have a secret relationship. Meanwhile, Max tries to gain Arianne's love for him, but she still loves Danny.

Max decides to let loose some of the strongest ghost enemies (a.k.a, Technus, Box Ghost, Skulker...) to attack Danny, hopefully hurting him in the process so his love won't have to fret over him anymore. But Max's plan backfires, and Danny fights them off to become the town hero, and known for saving many lives. Soon Arianne comes to the human world to be with Danny and take him back to the Ghost Zone, but Danny doesn't want to leave Susan.

_Whoa, _Danny thought, while halfway through the script, _how does Greg so much about the ghost world? _Then he continued back to reading, still eager to find out what happens in the end.

But he does choose to leave Susan, deciding that being in love with a human is wrong for the both of them, and leaves with Arianne, but before he leaves he gives Susan a good-bye kiss. He is welcomed into his home with open arms, as if nothing had happened before. Arianne and Danny are happily together again. Ending with an exciting climax, where Max tries to kill Danny, going into more extremes than before. Later Susan is found in the ghost world after making a working ghost portal. The beast then starts to try to kill Susan and Danny. Danny saves her, and eventually he leaves to be with Susan, who he truly loves.

Danny sighed; this was going to be tough.

The next day at school, the word was already around about the cast members of the movie. Paulina, Dash, and Valerie were even more popular. If that was even possible.

Danny, Tucker, and Sam were sitting at their regular table at lunch the next day. Danny was slightly miffed after missing a ghost attack, even though it was just the box ghost. He couldn't go ghost at all, no matter how hard he tried.

Valerie had ended up saving the day.

Tucker was the first to speak at lunch. "Can you guys believe it? I actually got a part!" He was so excited he was unaware he was jumping. Sam stuck a bottle of chocolate milk in his hands.

"Yes, we know." Danny and Sam both replied. They had heard this enough already.

Danny yawned, as if that was all he needed to say about Tucker's part. But he couldn't help it; he hadn't gotten any sleep last night. He couldn't grasp that reality that he was going to be in a major motion picture. And he was in too much pain to seriously sleep.

Tucker had stopped jumping soon enough. Sam grabbed her milk back.

"Mmm...now that's what I call good milk. Nice and frosty." Sam brushed off her lips.

Danny smiled, taking a nibble of his sandwich. He had gotten used to eating now.

But their enjoyable meal was abolished when Valerie and Paulina strutted toward him.

"Hey, why don't you get away from these losers and sit by us?" Paulina said absentmindedly to Danny while adding some cherry lip gloss on.

"We mean, you are super popular now, since you are Phantom." Valerie added. But her voice sounded a little off, and her eyes seemed slightly angry. Danny figured it was because she hated Danny Phantom so much.

Danny sat in silence for a while, eating his sandwich, while everyone else stared at him, wondering what he was going to do next.

Finally he spoke, looking at Valerie directly in the eye. She was just easier to look at than Paulina. He wanted to show her even though they broke up a while ago; her had no feelings left for her. "Sorry, but these losers you are talking about are my friends. And I will be sitting by them."

Valerie looked taken aback, and Paulina looked just plain offended. Nobody had ever given up the opportunity to sit by her.

"Only chance..." Paulina flipped her hair in a challenge. It seemed as if that whole lunchroom was watching them.

Danny just turned around and began sipping his beverage. Valerie and Paulina left to sit by their friends.

"Thanks." Sam said.

"They could have asked the mighty Technus to sit by them." Tucker mumbled.

Sam just threw her milk cap at him.


	15. Plasmius

_Chapter 15: Plasmius_

Danny sighed. Another tough day. He had just finished another acting session. Sure it was fun, but knowing this regular practice stuff will be ending soon really stressed him out. He wasn't sure he was ready for real acting. Real filming.

Danny shrugged any negative thought out of his mind and tried to just focus on the bright side of things. He was going to be in a movie. A real, live movie. He smiled slightly, and then tried to open his door to his room.

No answer. He knocked loudly. Surely Jazz should be home. Or his parents. Abruptly the door opened and an all too familiar figure showed up.

"Vlad." Danny muttered.

"Why, hello dear Daniel. Nice to see you this time of day?" He walked swiftly to the nearby television and plopped down on the dull grey-brown couch.

"What are you doing here?" Danny demanded. He would have gone ghost right then, but his body wouldn't let him. Every time he tried to go ghost, his willpower just bounced right back at him like a rubber band.

"I just decided to give my dear niece a little visit." Vlad responded, flipping through the few channels they had.

"Where are mom and dad? And Jazz?" He moved his wheelchair closer to Vlad, prepared to fight in any way if he had to.

Vlad got up to the kitchen counter and handed Danny a neat, handwritten note.

"I didn't think you would be able to get the note, so I took the liberty of getting it for you." Vlad smiled. Danny swore his eyes sparkled menacingly, almost as if he knew something he didn't.

Danny ignored his bubbling anger and began to read the letter.

_Dear Danny, _

_I hope you had a great time at lessons. Jack and I decided to go to our house and try to find some remains of things that may be useful for ourselves. Then if we have time we will try to find jobs. Jazz is currently in a Science Club Meet, so she won't be back until nine. I prepared some sandwiches for you if you get hungry._

_With Love, _

_Maddie and Jack._

"Just so you know, hurting an innocent, handicapped kid would not go good with the public." Danny commented, setting the note aside.

"Trust me, you are not handicapped." Vlad's menacing smile grew even bigger than before.

Suddenly everything in the room turned blank, as if they didn't matter anymore. Danny couldn't focus. It was Vlad, it just had to be. He was the one who brought the squirrel after him. He was the one who burned down their house. He was the one who made Danny's life miserable.

"_You_." Danny's anger bubbled until he couldn't contain it anymore. With all his power, he tried to turn into Phantom, but the rubber band just bounced right back at him with twice as much force. He tried again, his anger focusing into power. A light blue ring surrounded him, and then shattered and disappeared, but his anger still remained.

Vlad stared at Danny is dismay. "Yo-you weren't supposed to do that." Although he didn't even turn into his ghostly half, Vlad was still surprised that he would at least get halfway there.

Danny seemed to not have heard him. His same thoughts jumbled up in his head, replaying over and over until he just had to verbalize them. "_You._ You burnt down our house. And you made me lose my ghost powers. You...you were the one who did everything to me. You always do." By now his tone was raising louder and with more force. His anger almost making him feel faint. He wouldn't have been this angry with anyone else, but this was Vlad. And he had gone much too far this time.

"Now, now, dear Daniel." Vlad walked over to Danny slowly and cautiously, placing a rough, gentile hand on Danny's shoulder. "It wasn't me who burned down your house. I just happened to mention it, and some ghosts must have blown it down for me. It just hired the police to lie about the accident, and tell you that a fire caused it."

Danny looked flustered, with his eyes sparkling with fury like fiery stars. But Vlad didn't care. Danny couldn't hurt him. And even if he did have the willpower to go ghost, he could take Danny down in a second. So all this was a win-win situation for him. He got to see Danny angry, but with nothing he could do about it.

Since Danny seemed to be speechless, Vlad began to continue to talk. "But, I was the one who made that squirrel, or whatever it was, attack you." Vlad paused dramatically for a chance to glance at Danny. His face now was completely blank, his normal bright blue eyes now almost resembling a dull ocean gray.

Vlad continued boasting.

"It was very simple, poisoning you. I just had to go into the ghost zone, and get some Sonmathian Plant juice. Then get a squirrel and inject it in him. All he had to do then was bite you, and the venom would spread through you, abruptly beginning to take away your ghost powers." As if on cue, Danny's body turned completely invisible. Vlad chuckled to himself. "Your uncontrollable powers, and horrible body pain are just a side effect; a very fortunate one at that." Vlad finished, now looking at the visible Danny.

Danny now just couldn't bear to stay angry. This was just something he needed. Now that he knew the source of his disabled-ness, he could now try to find a cure. It was the closest thing he had to getting better. Or, at least, saving Danny Phantom's future.

"Well I guess I better be going now." Vlad commented to Danny before transforming into Plasmius. Danny just smirked at him. "Well good luck with your movie." Vlad jumped into the air, and went through ceiling.

Gone. For now, at least.

Now all Danny had to call his friends right away to try to fix this mess.

He rolled his wheelchair over to the phone and dialed those all too familiar numbers.

"Hey." Danny heard Tucker's voice.

"Hey man." Danny responded back.

"What's up?"

"One second, Tuck. I need to get Sam in on this." Danny set down the phone a second and pressed in Sam's number.

"Hello. This is Sam Manson."

"Yo." Danny and Tucker replied in unison.

"Oh, hey guys." Although Sam didn't sound interested, Danny could hear the smile behind her voice.

"Danny's got some news."

"Okay, let me hear it." Sam replied without even thinking. Danny always had the some of the most interesting news out of the three of them.

"Now I don't want you guys to interrupt me during any of this." Danny said.

"Wow, this must be important." Tucker muttered. But he was probably just angry that he couldn't say much now while Danny was talking.

Unlike Tucker, Sam heard the stress and pain in Danny's tone. "Okay."

Danny then started to explain his meeting with Vlad. At first his voice was shaky, not knowing what to say. Then he started to enhance his voice, although not with excitement, just pure anger. A couple minutes later her finished. "So, now all we need to do is find a cure for this or Danny Phantom will be no more. We can't have the town be in danger."

For once Tucker was silent. He had no idea what to say.

Sam cured the silence. "I have a older cousin. He's a doctor, and used be obsessed with ghosts and anything supernatural. Maybe I could call him and see if he can help you."

"But that would mean I would have to tell him my secret." Danny said slowly.

"We can trust him. I know he won't tell anyone. Anyways nobody else would be able to help you without publicizing your secret or taking you to test labs. If not, I will throw him in the ghost zone."

Danny was about to protest, but he knew he couldn't argue against Sam.

"Danny, I think you should do this. We can't help you, and this is the only chance you have." Tucker's voice quietly filled the conversation.

"And I know how much this movie means to you, Danny. I don't want your opportunity to be ruined just because of Vlad." Sam included.

Two against one. "Sure, I guess I have to do it. If it's the only hope I have." Danny muttered unwillingly.


	16. The Beginning of the End, Part One

**Finally, another chapter. I had crazy fingers the whole time I typed this, and it was almost addicting. I hope you enjoy another installment. **

* * *

_Review: for those of you who haven't read this story in a while, I'm going to refresh your memory. I know how it feels when you haven't read a fanfiction in a while, and just seem to have no clue what's going on a year later after its last update. For those of you new to this story, I suggest you not skim your eyes across this due to some tad spoilers._

_A movie director comes to town, looking for the ideal Danny Phantom for his new film about none other than Danny Phantom. He sees a great resemblance between Danny Fenton and his hero, and offers him a part. At first Danny is hesitant, but after the tragic loss of his home, which turned out to be the doings of none other than Vlad, Danny decides to take the part in the film to help pay for the fines against the Fenton's house. Immediately after situating himself into his new home in an apartment, an evil squirrel under the control of Vlad, attacks Danny, causing to poison his ghost half. Valerie helps Danny, but suspects something strange about him when some odd things happen to him, like a seemingly disappearing arm. Meanwhile, Danny is tortured from the pain of the bite, and his whole body hurts terribly. Practices start for the movie. Vlad makes an appearance, and brags all about how the bite will slowly take away all Danny's ghost powers, making him fully human._

_Hopefully that explains enough for you, so you have no need to page back to previous chapters._

* * *

_Chapter 16: The Beginning and the End Pt. 1_

That night, Danny struggled to let himself go to sleep. He was having one of those nights, where his body was between dreamland and sleeplessness. He had hope, but at the same time it seemed his whole world was falling down on him. His mind wandered, dreading when he'd have to loosely tell his secret to a person he hardly knew, and trust them with him with his own future.

What if this so-called cousin couldn't keep a secret and accidently blurted something he obviously didn't mean to? Danny's life would become tangled between regular life, movie star life, and ghost life.

Life was tough already, and Danny's blood boiled when he thought of who was behind all of this. Vlad. Apparently, Vlad thought he got him this time and even Danny started to believe so. But this was too much. Sure, Danny had done tons of terrible things to Vlad, but only, like in kindergarten days, because "he started it". Vlad did start everything. In the beginning, when anomalously he sent ghosts to attack his family, and later, after he found out Danny's secret, and Danny found out Vlad's. Danny wasn't the one who tried to clone his own ghostly self, and create a new life to a miserable teenager when in Vlad's hands. He never brought Valerie into this dangerous life of hunting ghosts. Danny's life wouldn't have been this way if Vlad had ever found out about his powers.

Maybe it was his fault his life was this way. He could have been a regular teenager, sleeping in a normal house, and thinking teenage thoughts, like if he was going to pass that math test, or if he was ever going to get the girl. But no, he just had to press the button on the Fenton Portal by mistake. Him, being stupid enough to actually set foot in his parent's lab, and walk in the Portal in the first place.

Or was his parents' fault that he was laying here now, in this hard, dusty bed, while he struggled to go to sleep in deep pain? They were the ones who were obsessed with ghosts. They were the ones who built their lab, along with the Fenton Portal. They were oblivious enough to believe their children would never be curious enough to peek into their laboratory.

Danny sighed, his ribs piercing the whole core of his body. It was hard to breathe sometimes.

He was being immature, blaming everyone, even himself, for the change of events in his life. It wasn't anybody's fault, although it was easy enough to point a finger directly at Vlad. Everything that happened just had to lead up to this moment. Now. He couldn't be fretting about blaming everybody; he just had to accept that it was happening. He had also always wished to be different, and then he received his ghost powers. The most he could do was hope for the better, be optimistic. Who knew what was in store for the future?

Danny stared at the wall above him on his back. It was crazy how on the outside he was doing such a simple activity, but on the inside he was about to blow up. And, ever so slowly, like the time it takes for a vast lake to freeze with the temperature of winter, Danny finally closed his eyes and was enveloped in a deep sleep.

* * *

"Good morning."

Danny was woken up from his slumber by Jazz's calm voice paired with the brightness of her turning on the lights. He rustled in his bed, and tried closing his eyes again, wanting dearly to just let his body feel nothing. It didn't work. Even through his closed eyelids, he could sense the brightness of lights.

"Danny, come on. Wake up, it's time for school." Jazz's voice again.

_Ugh, _he thought, _just let me sleep. _

Apparently Jazz just wouldn't shut up. "I made some toast and juice for you. It's on the table."

Danny didn't listen; he just rolled off his side to his back, and stared once again at the wall above him.

Footsteps were getting closer to him. Danny sat up, having a feeling that someone was watching him. There was Jazz, standing in the doorway. "I know you're tired, but you have school. And you know right afterwards you have to stay back for lessons. No skipping. So get up and eat something." She walked away.

"Fine." Danny groaned. Slowly he stood up from the soft comfort of his bed, for the moment totally forgetting his damaged condition. Immediately his whole body stung, and Danny collapsed, right on the hard floor that was below him a moment ago. He couldn't believe himself. How did he forget about the poisoning of his body? That ghost plant must have been strong, causing him so much unbearable pain.

Jazz rushed in through the doorway once again, this time instead of the pleasant expression she held before was replaced by worry, her eyebrows creased together. "Danny." She gasped, before rushing over to become a helping hand.

Danny sighed, and then accepted Jazz's hand. What else could he do? He was so helpless, and part of him just hoped for his ghost powers to go away so the pain would along with it. Danny knew that thought was ridiculous. Sam's cousin would come along to help, and after that everything would be okay.

"Thanks." Danny looked at Jazz in the eyes, now standing up, face to face with his sister. "I'm sorry you have to look after me. I knew these powers would get in the way one day. But I know it will be over soon."

Jazz seemed to be surprised by the certainty in Danny's voice, and could only muster a couple words. "It's all right." She helped him onto his wheelchair, and with the feature of a control that came with it, Jazz didn't need to be any help anymore.

Danny headed to the nearby kitchen, where on the table there was the breakfast his sister had told him that was going to be waiting for him. Next to it there were the familiar pills he had taken only a couple days ago. First he gulped them down, and then moved onto the rest of his breakfast before it became cold.

Sure, even moving the tiniest muscle hurt either a little or terribly, but after around a week of being in this state he was trying to get the hang of it. It was getting kind of agitating, like a fly that you can't get rid of. Danny knew all he could do was just suck it up until they found a cure.

An hour later, Danny had taken a shower, gotten a fresh change of clothes, and now was ready to leave for school with his sister. Normally, all this would have taken under a quarter of an hour, but these days were different.

Luckily, school was nearby, and on the way they met with Tucker and Sam.

"I called my cousin this morning; he's such an early bird. I didn't explain much to him, just that my friend was hurt, but it wasn't any case that I'd heard of, and that if you wanted to learn more about ghosts he should come. That got his attention. He should be here by tomorrow or the next day." Sam informed them the moment she caught up to Danny, Jazz, and Tucker.

"What?" Jazz asked, her face scrunched up, and wrinkles forming around her nose. Tucker laughed at Jazz's expression.

"Well…" Danny began to explain the events of the previous night, and only finished once they arrived at the doors of Casper High.

"How can you trust a person you barely know, when you haven't even told them your secret?" Jazz whispered, and she could tell Tucker and Sam were leaning in, curious of Danny's answer. Obviously they were wondering the same thing.

"I have been thinking the same thing. I guess it's because this guy doesn't hunt ghosts, and I guess it'll make it easier that I barely know him. Also that Sam believes that I can trust him, and I trust her judgment. She hasn't been wrong before." Danny replied, a shadow of a smile forming on his lips. Sam blushed.

An hour later, during Danny's science class, he heard screaming from outside the hallway. Abruptly afterwards a strange green glow filled the room. It seemed to be growing, growing, and getting brighter and brighter. The brighter the light became, the louder the screaming was. There was a wave of whispering throughout the classroom.

Danny's heart began to pump. The only thing that could be able to do that was a ghost, and Danny hadn't even known it was coming. His ghost sense wasn't working, and this worried him deeply. So badly he wanted to raise his hand like he always did, and ask to leave for any certain reason. He couldn't though. Why would anybody want to go anywhere out there while a ghost was on the loose? All he could do was sit here, and wait for something to happen.

Quickly, the class rushed to the window to see what was happening. Tucker, Sam, and Danny remained at the edge of the crowd.

"Hey," he whispered to his friends. "My ghost sense wasn't working; I didn't know there was a ghost coming until I heard screaming." It hurt so much to say this, to know that his powers were actually fading away. Tucker and Sam didn't know how to respond, so they just anxiously looked out the window to see what was going on.

"At least Valerie has got it covered." Sam whispered a moment later when the familiar red jumpsuit shot down a green ghost, and then quickly sucked it in with a thermos. People cheered.

_That could have been me, _Danny thought sulkily.

Slowly, school passed, with no more ghost attacks. Lunch came, and finally Danny had the chance to say something he had wanted to say to his two best friends ever since this morning.

After receiving their food, which was left untouched, like it always was, Danny began to speak.

"Hey guys," he began, they both looked up from poking their food. Danny glanced around the lunchroom, and saw Paulina and Valerie looking straight at them. Dash was occupied too much to fooling around with his football buddies. Danny pulled his head closer to him, and Tucker and Sam did the same. "I just want to thank you guys so much for helping me out. " They both nodded.

"No problem, man." Tucker grinned at Danny. "It had been awesome to be able to miss some of class helping you with your books."

Danny laughed for a moment. That was Tucker for you. There was a moment's silence, and then Danny decided he could begin to talk again. "But you guys know what Vlad said. Soon this venom, or poison, or whatever you call it will begin to strip my powers away and soon Danny Phantom will be no more. Already I don't have my ghost sense, and I can't even change into Phantom. Eventually people are going to notice that their town hero is gone. If you're cousin can't find a cure-"

"Which he will." Sam butted in forcefully.

"But on the negative side, what if he doesn't? I will become a regular person, and Danny Phantom won't be Danny Phantom anymore. Greg will have to cancel the movie if there is no ghost hero to even make a movie about. Then our family won't be able to pay to fix our house." Although this topic was tough to talk about, it felt good to tell his friends what he had been up thinking about for part of the night. Vlad definitely planned his scheme very well.

"I guess we will have to wait and find out." Tucker slowly said.

* * *

The day drawled on very slowly, but probably slower for poor Valerie. Somehow the word had passed within the Ghost Zone that Danny Phantom had disappeared for Amity Park, causing an uproar of ghosts in the small township. Danny felt terrible knowing that he could do nothing to help the town or Valerie.

Eventually school ended, and all the teens swept out of the building, except for Danny, who had lessons right after school.

"Hello, Danny." October's friendly voice greeted him, and motioned for him to sit by her. "So, sadly, I have to say that our lessons will be ending soon, due to that we have to start filming in two weeks. Greg has finalized the scripts and is ready to put this into action." She smiled. "I'll miss working with you a lot, but I will be seeing quite a bit of you, since I'll be helping Greg produce this movie. Who do you think helped him write all the gooey romantic scenes?"

Danny laughed. "I did think the scenes were a little too good to be true."

October joined him. "He wanted Susan to punch you in the gut for the excitement of it, even though you guys are supposed to be deeply in love."

"Greg does seem like the man who would misuse violence that way." He grinned.

An hour later, lessons ended, and Danny was heading out the doorway with a departing wave toward October. Quickly he moved through the hallway, when he surprisingly ran into none other than Greg.

"Hey, Danny," Greg greeted Danny with a friendly handshake. "I was just going to check up on how October was doing, but I'm glad I ran into you."

"Yeah."

"Do you happen to know when you will get out of your wheelchair?" Greg asked, while his eyes trailed along the device Danny was sitting upon.

"No, I don't. I figure it will be soon though." Danny replied calmly, hoping he showed no traces of doubt, while inside his heart began pumping. No way was he going to get kicked out of this movie already.

"I understand. It's a very terrible inconvenience that you got into an accident right before filming, but it pains me to tell you that if you haven't healed in time, we might have to call up a replacement. I already have one on hold. I can try my best to delay filming, but it will be hard." The movie director explained regretfully. What terrible odds that his star actor was injured, but the show had to go on.

Thankfully, Greg bided his goodbyes and left towards the room Danny was in only a minute ago, leaving Danny able to not think up a response.

He excited out the doors of Casper High, when a familiar voice echoed around the empty campus.

"Danny!" Sam unnecessarily yelled, considering they were only a couple dozen yards away from each other. She jogged up to Danny, and the first thing he noticed was the bright smile across her face. "He's here."

"Who?" Danny asked, his mind not processing comments very well this day.

"Jake Mason. My cousin. Apparently he found the place sooner than I thought he would. I already called Tucker, so he'll be there soon." Sam explained, her face flustered with exhaustion.

"That guy sure knows how to do his duty, I like him already." Danny commented. Finally, hope was here. He had the chance of getting healed before filming began.

Their walk, and "ride" on Danny's part, was quick, considering the two teens talked the whole way there. Sam talked about the ghost attacks, and what she saw on the news about the reporters overreacting about Phantom's sudden disappearance; Danny happened to get on the topic about Greg's conversation with him, and how he only had two weeks to become able to use his limbs on his own.

They met Tucker at Sam's doorstep, and together they headed upstairs to Sam's room where Jake was waiting for them.

"Hello, Sam." Jake waved to her, and then gestured toward Tucker with his hand. "Is this the injured boy you were talking about?"

Sam laughed at the reaction of Tucker's offended face, and Danny slapped him on the back. "Actually, no." She puffed. "Danny is the one you need to be helping."

Then he truly took in the appearance of this boy, and at the same time Danny was staring at him in the eyes, evaluating him. First impressions can meant a lot, and mean a lot they did.

Danny saw an average height, thin and lanky man, and at first sight Danny assumed he was in his late twenties. His bulky glasses, the kind that are seemingly fashionable on one a couple few people, added a disproportioned seasoning to his skinny appearance. Jake's light hair was decent, and like Danny's wasn't very well combed, just sprouting across his head. Clothes, however, he seemed to care about. He was wearing a white jacket paired with jeans, and his glossy blue tie emphasized his Caribbean eyes. Danny presumed him to be a handsome man, although he gave off a strange aurora of Greg-ness, and that pulled Danny away.

Jake, on the other hand, was impressed. This boy strangely reminded himself of himself as a teenager. At first he couldn't take his eyes off the wheelchair he was sitting on, his skinny body seeming to want to resist sitting and jump up at any moment. The messy hair, the casual clothes, and his thin body just made Jake feel they would have gotten along well if they had been in the same school together as kids.

"Oh, my bad." Jake smiled feebly, his cheeks revealing two very distinct dimples. "It's very great to meet you, Danny." He pulled his hand out, and all Danny could do was accept it. Jake noticed how weak this boy's grip was, and now he knew that no matter how healthy he appeared to be, something was up. "So," his head turned to Sam, who wasn't far away from Danny. "You said that he was very sick, and that it was something very different."

"Yeah. I only figured you could help." Sam muttered. She felt terrible for putting Danny in the position he was in now, but she was positive it was the only way to cure him.

"I can only help if I know what's up. I can already tell this isn't like anything I've seen at all."

"It isn't." Jake heard Danny whisper quietly.

"It isn't? Maybe it's not bad at all. I don't see why you didn't go ask a different doctor, other than me. I doubt I can be any help." Jake said modestly, his left hand rubbing the top of his head.

"You can, though. Sam said you can, and I believe her. You know a lot about ghosts, right?" Danny asked, his last question almost sounding like a side note, seeming like he didn't even know whether he heard it or not. When Jake looked into Danny's desperate eyes, though, he knew for sure he'd heard right. But why would this strange be asking him whether his knew about ghosts or not.

"Well, yes, I do. I want to know all about them, and I think I'm getting close." He responded.

"It's about time you learn more about them." Danny's voice gave off an edge of mystery. He very dearly did not want to trust his secret in the hands of this man, but he had too. Time was running out, faster than his heart was beating. He had to act now. If not, in two weeks there was most likely to be no movie. Even more importantly, time was running out for Danny Phantom. He never expected a time when he would just openly tell about his heroic self to anybody, but times had changed. Danny hesitated for a second, but gained courage when Tucker and Sam rested their hands gently on his shoulders. "You've ever heard about half-ghosts? Part human, part ghost?" He questioned awkwardly.

"No, I haven't. That's not possible. Ghosts are dead souls of people." Jake shook his head.

"Some are, but some aren't."

"What are you saying?" Jake leaned in eagerly. This Danny kid sounded so sure of himself that he was beginning to question his own long and hard studies of ghosts he had attempted.

"Ghost can also be made from ectoplasm. Haven't you ever heard of that?" His eyes were now piercing into his own, causing a slight discomfort within Jake.

"I have heard of that, but I figured that it was all just nonsense." Jake shrugged.

"It's not." Danny snapped. Why couldn't this guy just cooperate? "My parents are ghost hunters, and I should know all the things they know. In fact, I know more. Ghosts can be both dsead souls, but also can be created."

Suddenly the peaceful and curious expression Jake composed before changed into an angry and frustrated one. Unexpectedly, Jake just blew up. "This is it? You only brought me here so your friend here can just show off all his knowledge about ghosts? And I thought you didn't believe in ghosts, Sam. You made fun of me about it for years. Then you meet this kid, and suddenly you're comforting him and acting like ghosts are the most real thing alive. I'm wasting my time here; I have to get up early for work tomorrow." Jake fiercely shot up from his chair, heading for the door, completely forgetting about his concern for Danny's health.

Sam was closer to the door, though, and beat him to it. She made a wall against her cousin, and the place to which he would barged right through a moment ago."Jake, stop." Sam had a feeling Jake would do this; he'd always had a short temper. "Listen to him." Quickly her voice began to crisply grow louder, almost like turning up a knob on a radio. "Danny needs help. He's trying to explain. I'm sorry I teased you before, I didn't believe you then, and I thought you were crazy. But then I met Danny, and his ghost obsessed parents. I still didn't believe. Almost a year ago, I began to be positive ghosts exist, Jake, all because there is one sitting with us right now." Slowly, Jake backed away from the door, his hair standing on end, and placed his body back on his chair, almost robotically. Sam turned away, beginning to fix some papers nearby that didn't need to be placed. Tears started to well beneath her eyelids. She couldn't let her friends see her face now. It would be humiliating.

Tucker and Danny observed quietly from the sidelines. Danny had a premonition that Jake and Sam had a more emotional and troubled relationship than just gentle teasing.

Ever so slowly, Sam turned around to look at her cousin, where he was sitting, and waiting for the moment when he could ask for an explanation.

"There's a ghost sitting with us right now…" He trailed off to himself, unaware that everyone in the room could hear him.

"Me." Danny said loudly, obviously trying to break the tension between him a Sam, but also to answer the thought that was on Jake's mind ever since Sam's outburst.

"You? A ghost? You look entirely human to me." He scrunched up his face, obviously confused.

"I know. I'm a human, but I'm also a ghost. I can kind of...well it's hard to explain…but I can turn into a ghost whenever I want to." The teen trailed off awkwardly.

And from there came the long session of explaining on Danny, Sam, and Tucker's part, and mostly questions from Jake. They told him about who Danny actually was, who just happened to be Jake's favorite ghost, about the accident, and about the poison slowly draining Danny's powers away. At first he thought they were joking, but ever so slowly he began to realize they were all telling the crazy truth.

"This is insane. I can't believe you're actually the real Danny Phantom. It's an honor to help you, and I will heal you." He noticed Danny's questioning face. "Don't worry; I can keep your secret. It's the best I can do. You'd get nothing done if everyone knew who you were." This guy was annoying, but he was very smart. Danny was glad that Sam brought him here.

Jake took out a strange black leather suitcase and began to rummage through it. Finally, he took out a needle, grasping it in his palm. He walked over to Danny, who had been in the same place as he had been the whole day. "All I need to do is take a sample of your blood, and I will know what to do." He pressed the long needle against Danny's skin. Although he'd fought many ghosts that were more dangerous than a needle, this still seemed pretty intimidating.

"So we spend over two hours explaining everything to you, and all you can come up with is a needle?" Tucker blurted. "No special machines? Lethal devices?"

Jake pulled out the needle from Danny's skin, inspecting the strange lumpy red-green substance that was supposed to be Danny's blood in the tube.

"Watch out, Tucker. Don't challenge the master." Sam joked.

"I just might let loose my lethal devises on you if you keep that attitude up." Jake commented casually while plucking a couple hairs, and scraping some skin samples from Danny. He gently placed them in a plastic bag.

"Empty threats, empty threats." Tucker mumbled while fumbling with the tip of his hat.

Jake bid his goodbyes a couple of skin samples later, and promised them to have a cure before Danny ran out of time.

"Nothing that he owns can compare to Technus's own skilled technology. I should know." Tucker immediately said, after Jake set foot out the door. Who knew whether he thought Jake was joking the whole time or not?

**Thanks for reading. I would really appreciate your feedback, and it means so much to me. Even a subtle "Please update" makes my day.**


	17. The Beginning of the End, Part Two

_Chapter 17: The Beginning of the End, Pt 2._

"Sam, I'm getting worried." Danny anxiously confessed to Sam, while they were waiting for Tucker outside the shady trees of Casper High. "I've got two more days left. _Two._ Who knows what will happen if your cousin doesn't find a cure?" He brushed his wavy black hair back subconsciously, a nervous habit he'd gotten into more and more as the days passed. Sam didn't mind this though; she oddly found it very attractive. Only his hair would manage to be ruffled and tasseled around, and still maintain a Hollywood-like quality to it.

And Amity Park needed as much Hollywood it could these days, considering the circumstances.

….

_What I am doing here? _Danny thought helplessly to himself, while taking a nervous sip of his water. It was better than talking, at least. He couldn't believe this was the way he was going to spend his sudden revival.

"So how'd you get better anyways?" Valerie asked, while plopping down on the chair beside Danny, her script in hand. He would have much preferred Valerie being at least a legal distance between them; ten feet at the least. But considering her apartment was approximately the same size as his, which was very small, it wasn't possible to fit more than one piece of furniture in the living room plus the television.

Danny shrugged, unwilling to tell the truth. He'd already told her the ridiculous source that caused his captivity, and he didn't need to let her know anything else. "It just kind of happened. My sister scolded me to take some medicine, and I guess it just kind of worked." He lied, although he was fairly close to the truth.

Yesterday, Jake welcomed himself into the Manson household, but not empty handed. Oddly enough, his cure was very simple. He'd gone through hours of experimenting on Danny's blood sample, and injecting the cells with any repellant he could find. Eventually he found the injection that would kill off all the venom in his blood, although Jake wouldn't let them know what it was. Danny didn't want to know, as long as it worked.

The next morning, he found himself feeling oddly pain-free, and eternally grateful to Jake. And the rest can tell itself; Danny was wandering in the hallway, amazed how great it felt to actually _walk_. It was like having delusions of flying.

Jack and Maddie were quite taken aback by the sudden healing of Danny, but they shoved that thought aside. As long as their son was happy, they were happy. Jazz was thoroughly surprised and amazed of Jake's work.

The rest of his school day lugged on, and him trying to avoid as much attention as possible, which Danny found it quite hard. Ever since his handicapping, and before that, him receiving the star role, he had been attracting plenty of attention. So he'd gone to the decision of just ignoring it. To some people, it may have seemed quite miraculous for him to have made a recovery over just a weekend.

Finally, during his sixth hour class, the moment he had been waiting for became a reality. The time to flex his ghost powers. Right in middle of Lancer's babble on the relationships between modern literature and Shakespeare, Skulker just happened "to stop by." Although Danny was a little rusty after a month's worth of the absence of his ghost powers, it felt exhilarating to actually do something and to be the hero.

An hour after school he found himself in Valerie's apartment. He didn't know why he agreed to Valerie's suggestion that he could just stay in her home for awhile. Whether it was out of pure generosity or just neighborly kindness, he didn't know.

"Ah," Valerie replied to Danny's cloudy explanation, although she was struggling to decide whether to believe him or not, but the feeling subsided, and she just came to the conclusion to let it pass.

An awkward silence fell between them while they both stared blankly at the television, thinking of something interesting to say.

"So how about we practice a couple lines?" Valerie suggested while paging through her script.

Danny grabbed his script, and mimicked through the pages like Valerie was. "Sure, that's why I came here, right?"

"Right. How would you feel about doing the first scene, where we meet?"

"Sure." Danny scavenged through the pages awkwardly, and then caught Valerie staring at her from the corner of his eyes. "What?" He asked.

"Do you need help?" Valerie smiled.

"I guess you could say that. I haven't really opened this thing all." Danny admitted while holding the paper by its staples with his thumb and forefinger.

"Page 52, middle of the page."

"Thanks." Danny said once he'd successfully found his lines.

"No problem." Valerie eyed the script for a moment. "So how about I start?" Danny nodded, and Valerie studied her lines for a moment, and took a deep breath. "Oh, God. Oh, God, I must be seeing things. You cannot be a ghost. Ghosts don't exist."

"And I didn't think humans existed either." Danny read carefully.

"…only in scary movies. Dreams. Supernatural. How can I be going crazy, I'm perfectly normal!" Valerie exclaimed, her arms flailing upwards in an almost humorous motion.

"You're not crazy. '_Put hands on Susan's shoulders_.' I'm perfec-what?" Danny's eyes trailed upwards towards Valerie, who he found surprisingly covering her mouth with the tip of her fingers, obviously trying not to laugh.

"Wow, you definitely haven't opened this thing at all. Tho-those are the stage directions." Her reply came out in puffs. "You're not supposed to read them."

Danny skimmed over the blank inked words for a moment, dropping his shoulders slightly. "Oh. Right."

"Yeah." Valerie nodded slowly. "Just do it over again, and I promise not to laugh."

He pulled the script up to reading height again, and began. "You're not crazy. I'm perfectly real. Now can you please tell me where I am?"

"Amity Park." Her voice held a slight tremor to it, and it was very believable that she was meeting a ghost for the first time. With Valerie's emotions flowing with the script, it was hard not for Danny to come into character.

"Amity Park." He repeated, pondering. "And you are?" Subconsciously, Danny chuckled.

"What?" Valerie demanded.

"It's just that…" He closed his script gently. "…these lines, well, they stink."

Danny happened to hear something-a chuckle?-come from Valerie's lips. "I happen to think it's very well written. It's a rough draft anyways." She added.

He couldn't help but agree to her comment. "I sure hope the final draft is better than this."

"Yeah." Suddenly, her attention turned the news humming in the background.

"_Amity Park's hero, Danny Phantom, has finally returned after a month's absence this afternoon. Although nobody knows what made this ghost desert Amity Park, we are all glad to know he had arrived." _A short video of today's fight with Skulker flashed across the screen.

"_Speaking of Danny Phantom," _the male newscaster added shuffling his papers as if it made him more superior, "_the filming for director Greg Smith's new yet unnamed film is set to begin tomorrow, and he has chosen quite a cast…" _The faces of Danny, Valerie, Dash, Paulina, and Phantom popped up.

Danny was absorbed in the news, but his attention was diverted when Valerie abruptly stood up, heading towards the bathroom, and closing the door behind her. Confused, Danny headed near the lavatory door, his right knuckle prepared to knock on the door, but his ears caught the quiet murmur a Valerie's voice, and his dropped his hand back to his waist.

He knew he shouldn't be eavesdropping, but he did anyways.

"…wait, didn't Danny heal yesterday? And today Phantom suddenly returns? Then the same day Danny tells me he was bitten by a squirrel-how odd-Phantom disappears? No, no, no, I'm just being paranoid. But he didn't have an arm that one day, but I was really tired…invisibility?" Valerie was whispering, almost feverishly.

Danny's head shot away from the door. _She saw me turn invisible? _He clenched his fists, shaking his head. _How could I have been so stupid to stay with her when my powers were uncontrollable?_ He forced himself to block out his screaming thoughts, turning his full attention back to listening to Valerie. It was essential for him to hear what she was saying.

"Fenton, Phantom. Danny. Coincidence, maybe?" Danny had to struggle to listen to Valerie's strained voice, due to the sound of rushing water of Valerie washing her face. "…they do look a little alike. Unless that's just me. But Greg must have seen the resemblance, since he just so _badly_ had to cast Danny for the part…ugh. I just don't know." With no warning, Valerie creaked the door open, catching Danny red-handed.

Danny jumped from the door, his face blushing just enough to give away his embarrassment. Valerie, obviously surprised, stepped back, her pupils wide, and her mouth opened wide enough he could see how white her teeth were.

"What the-"Valerie's voice trailed off, but quickly she recovered. "What are you doing here?" She demanded much too loud than intended, her face flustered.

"Nothing, nothing at all." Valerie narrowed her eyes. "Well you kinda just sat up with no warning at all, so I decided to see what going on."

Valerie remained silent for a moment, pondering. "And what exactly did you hear?"

"Well…not much. I don't know, you were talking so quietly." He mumbled, attempting to act as clueless a possible. Never in his life would he have imagined Valerie getting so close to his secret. Sure she was smart, but not _that _smart.

"Huh, I guess so." Valerie muttered, stumbling over to the couch, and exchanging her attention back to the television, like nothing ever happened in the last couple minutes. She couldn't believe how ridiculous she must have sounded, if Danny had actually heard her. Her, Valerie Grey, thinking that somehow there was something going on between Phantom and Danny? Preposterous. But no matter how hard she tried though, even after Danny sat down next to her, she just couldn't get the thoughts out of her head that somehow Phantom and Danny were together. There were so many things she had witnessed and processed in the last couple weeks she wasn't sure. The stress was getting to her; this all just had to be in her head, the ideas crossing her mind were just way to out of this world.

"Valerie, are you okay?" Danny asked softly, but with a hint of denial in his tone.

"Yeah, yeah." Out of the corner of her eyes she glanced at Danny. "We're friends, right?"

This question shocked Danny; it was two years ago he and Valerie had dated, and ever since their breakup they had hardly ever talked since. Now she expected them to have a friend status after two years of only catching glances of each other? She certainly was up to something.

He didn't know what to say, so he said the logical thing, not having the strength to say all that was rushing through his head right now. "Yeah…"

Valerie smirked. "And you'd be truthful with me, since we're friends and all?"

Danny's face felt like it was growing hot, but Valerie was putting him on the spot. "Yes." He replied impulsively. Suddenly he grew very frustrated; he couldn't believe he'd said that. It was like an open invitation for her to ask him anything. "No…maybe."

The teenage girl scrunched her eyebrows together. "Maybe?"

"Yeah maybe, it's just that…" Danny trailed off, and Valerie tilted her head forward, as if challenging him to say more. And that he did. He already knew Valerie was suspicious of his secret, and even if he declined everything she said, she would never give up until she figured out what was going on. Their relationship was already screwed up anyway, so why not just take chances? "It's just that we aren't friends, and you know that already. We haven't talked since freshman year, and now you're suddenly asking me if we're friends?"

"I'm sorry I haven't talked to you, but I just thought you didn't want me to." She looked up at Danny, her eyes apologizing. Danny was beginning to think maybe he'd underestimated Valerie. Maybe she had changed from her mean, biased self to someone better. "You had your friends, and I had mine. I don't see what you saw in the weird geek and crazy Goth girl though."

All positive thoughts of Valerie were forgotten; she was still her same old self. People never changed.

"You're talking to me about _friendship_ and _trust_ when you barely have any yourself?" Danny was angry now; all his anger and stress from the past months he had been holding in just blew up. Once you insult his friends, it's crossing the line.

Valerie's eyes widened, she didn't expect Danny to be offended by her comment. It just came out. They had always poked fun at the trio, but never had Valerie ever noticed Danny take it personally until now. She'd actually never seen him angry, for that matter. She took his easygoing personality for granted.

Danny ignored Valerie's shocked expression. He continued, anger and adrenaline pulsing through him so fast he couldn't think. He just knew he had to talk. "At least '_that weird geek and_ _crazy Goth girl_' are people I can trust." He mimicked Valerie's voice. "At least they are true friends, unlike the plastic ones you have. I bet you haven't even told your friends any of your secrets, Little Miss Red Huntress?" He gradually leaned toward Valerie, his fists clenched. It felt good to let loose his anger, and using Valerie as his personal punching bag.

"Wha-? How did you know that?" She demanded, her usual perfectly blushed face now was noticeably paler than usual.

"Well, my uncle _is_ Plasmius." He snapped back, like it was the most obvious thing on the planet.

"The Wisconsin Ghost? That's not even possible, is it?" She cocked her head. Maybe she wasn't the only crazy person in this room.

As quickly as his anger came, it all faded away, and with a halt Danny realized how big a mistake he had made. There was no way out of this predicament now. With a wave of thought he knew he would have to find a way out of this, and quick. Sure, he was a superhero and all, but he had an odd premonition he was going to lose this battle, but not without a fight.

"The Wisconsin Ghost? No, PlasmaUS." Danny emphasized the last two syllables with a stretch of his arm. "You know, 'Without US it isn't Plasma.'? The top leading ghost weapon making company." Internally, he gave himself a mental high five. He'd never been the one to create believable excuses; that was Sam and Tucker's skill, but this one deserved props only if Valerie believed it.

Valerie was quiet, skeptical of Danny's reason. "If they are so well-known, why haven't I seen any of their weapons around Amity Park, the town with the top leading ghost attacks?"

"We do have my parents. They give us the weapons, so we don't need PlasmaUs's weapons." Danny attempted with his best effort to reply as smooth as silk, like he'd known this all his life.

"Right. And your parents have made such _effective _weapons. From what I've heard, they've never made one that actually worked."

Danny stood up; he had nothing left. No excuses, no lies, nothing. The only escape he had left was to run. "First you make fun of my friends, and then my parents? I don't even know why I'm here." He strode toward the door, only a couple feet away from the handle…then was intercepted by Valerie, her arms spread wide across the exit.

"No. You have to explain how you know about me fighting ghosts. And I know you heard me in the bathroom. I'm not leaving here until you give me answers." She flipped her chaotic and tangled hair to the left. She couldn't get why she was doing this, something totally unlike her. What she was doing now would be something like Danny's nosy sister would do.

He stepped away from the door, his blue eyes electric. "You know Valerie, some things are better left unsaid. You don't want to know anything." Saying this, he was confirming something was up; how he knew about her secret identity, his disappearances, and everything Valerie had suspected in the last hour about him. And Valerie knew this, too.

"I'm not leaving." Simple as that, Danny knew even if he did inform her about his own secret identity, Valerie wouldn't tell a soul. That didn't mean he was going to tell her. Who knew how she was going to react when she found out that they were the same person. Her enemy and friend.

"And I'm not saying anything. So we might as well stay here forever."

Valerie didn't say a word; she just leaned against the wall, attempting to cover as much space as possible.

Suddenly a scream made Valerie jump, and at the same precise moment Danny's ghost sense went off. Danny took Valerie's alarm as an advantage, and leaned toward it. Her hand gripped off the handle, and she leaped this slightest way to the left. Danny pushed Valerie aside with reflexes so fast they were hard to believe they were human, and escaped out into the hallway.

He was fast, but Valerie was just as quick. Danny tried to evade her as much as he could, but she just stuck to him like glue. And he needed to get that ghost as quickly as possible. Who knew what it was doing?

Danny's ghost sense lead him the double doors of the motel that would lead him outside, and once he opened those doors, he didn't like what he saw.

Up in the sky what a green ghoul, with hollow black eyes like a bird's nest. Its blocky arms carried a woman around twenty holding a tiny baby boy wrapped up in a bright yellow blanket. She was screaming for help; the baby was screaming out of fear. It laughed, heading higher, higher, and higher.

Danny, unaware of Valerie still chasing him, ran to the nearest dark corridor he could find. In thirty seconds time he found a littered alley way, accompanied by giant green public garbage bin. He stood in his heroic stance, prepared to go ghost, when he noticed Valerie in the cross-section of the alleyway and real sidewalk, hunched over on her knees, huffing and puffing.

"I got you now." She whispered.

Above her head, Danny's eyes caught sight of the ghost, watching him steadily. _I could still run, _he thought to himself. _They aren't in any real trouble yet. _Without warning, Danny saw the figure of the woman and baby drop from the ghost's arms.

"Whoops." It's voiced boomed throughout Danny's ears, taunting him.

He was faced with two choices; either let these two innocent people die from his own selfishness, or save their lives and reveal his secret to Valerie. He had no choice; Danny took the second option.

Valerie never would have expected to see what was to happen next. Danny's eyes changed from its mesmerizing blue to shocking green. Two light blue rings enveloped around Danny's waist, reminding Valerie of supernatural hula hoops. They both headed vertically in different directions. Their light was unbearably too bright, seeping power and energy, but Valerie stared ahead, forcing her eyes to look through the neon light. In Danny Fenton's place was Danny Phantom, his shoulders set back ready for the task ahead.

Valerie couldn't deny what she saw, she witnessed the whole transformation, and she was more shocked than ever. Her worst and most powerful enemy was the quiet, funny, and clumsy boy she had known ever since middle school?

Ignoring Valerie's reaction entirely, Danny jumped into the air, locking his eyes on the people he was set to save. Having seconds to spare, Danny smiled at Valerie. "And now you know." He stuck his right arm out in a salute. "See you tomorrow!"

Valerie, in a complete state of stillness, just stared and watched. She watched Danny save those two people, she watched him fly away as a hero, with dozens of people surrounding the sidewalk, cheering for him, and she watched the young woman cradle her child and cry with tears of joy, thanking the ghost that had saved her life.

Hours later into the setting of the sun, she still stood in the same spot, disbelieving, as if the cold of the night would shake her into humanity.

Getting tired, she decided to head back home. It was getting late, very cold, and her dad was probably worried about her.

Crossing her arms, she walked back where she would be able to sleep on a warm bed.

Tomorrow was going to be a big day.

_There were many different approaches I had thought of for this chapter, but this was the best one I could think of, and I hope you think so too. I would just like to say I am a firm supporter of Danny and Sam, so before you jump to conclusions, no this does not include a DXV relationship. _

_Coming next: filming! It may take a while to get up, since I want to make it very good, and I have to break my writers block somehow. So, please review, I really, really appreciate it. Knowing that you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it is a huge booster for me. _


	18. MindGames

_Very shot recap of last chapter: Valerie saw Danny Fenton transform into Danny Phantom._

_I don't have very much time to post this, and it is really late, so I am going to hold back on the rambling. _

_Please enjoy!_

* * *

_Chapter 18: Let's Do Something About It_

_He's a ghost. _Her mind screamed at her.

_But, he's also a human._ She argued back. _But how?_

The entire night, Valerie's exhausted mind relayed on with the same arguments and questions hundreds of times but with no answers.

Her most frequent question: How do you get a teenage boy and a teenage ghost as one person?

Her mind reeled out of control. All of it was just so impossible. Real ghosts, she believed once, were just fiction, some horror story that parents told their kids so they wouldn't go in their basements. Not anymore though, after they had started to terrorize Amity Park and brought her into the mess.

Oddly enough, she had gotten used to all the ghosts, and she had adapted by fighting them to save her town. After all, she was the only _real _ghost hunter in Amity Park.

But what she hadn't gotten used to, though, was a ghost-human. This concept, this reality, no matter how far-fetched it seemed, was no part of her imagination. She'd seen it with her own eyes. She saw Danny Fenton turn into a ghost. She _saw _those surreal blue rings wrap around Danny's body, molding him into a creature she dared not be a part of.

Not only was the idea of Fenton being Phantom impossible, but it was also ironic.

How ironic is it that one of her good friends was also her worst enemy? That the guy she had liked once—even dated—was the same guy she had tried shooting in cold blood. That Danny, who was fully living and breathing, was also a cold, dead spectral being.

There was no way that a person could be in both worlds – dead and alive.

She had tried adding two and two, but nothing summed up. Valerie was the type of person that used logic, and with everything there was a reasonable answer.

Her brain was fried trying to think of solutions, and within an hour of twisting and rolling around her warm bed sheets, she'd only come up with a couple logical answers, all of which she _absolutely_ didn't like.

One: That Phantom was overshadowing Danny. This idea was entirely possible, except for the probability that Phantom had to have been inside Danny's body for quite a while. Valerie tried to reach her mind out to remember when Danny suddenly began to pull his disappearances during school and when Phantom had abruptly arrived in Amity Park. But she couldn't; his charade had been going on as long as she could remember.

A second thought that crossed her mind was that maybe – just maybe – Phantom could be impersonating as Fenton. She tried not second guessing her thoughts, but why in the world would he impersonate the innocent child of two ghost hunters? –unless he wanted to know all their secrets to ambush them. But then again, the time that he had been inside Fenton had to have been a while now, and he should have made a move on the Fenton's over a year ago. Obviously, he was _way _more powerful than the both of them combined.

Her last idea was the one she was absolutely repulsed by, and dared not to think about: that Phantom was manifesting inside of Danny, almost like a parasite.

Valerie rubbed her numb hands against her temple and let out a quiet subdued sigh, her thoughts jumbling around like ants in scampering the sunlight, and closed her eyes.

As she fell into a deep half-slumber, she never once considered that Danny could be a half-human, half-ghost hybrid.

* * *

Valerie's eyes flickered open unwillingly in reaction to the light shining through her window. She pushed her wild and tangled hair away from her forehead, and then, with an agitated growl, she slammed shut the dull white curtains.

"There," she sighed and flopped back onto her bed.

_Wait. _Some cloudy, hazy thought crossed her mind. Wasn't she supposed to be doing something right now?

_Oh, right. _The movie. Filming.

Valerie hoisted herself forcefully off her bed. Her eyes were just so heavy; she'd barely slept after arriving home way past curfew, and then her dad's frustrated ranting towards her had kept her up even longer than planned. And then_, _if that wasn't enough, her mind hadn't stopped suggesting reason to her the whole night, crossed between thoughts of ghosts and humans.

Just the regular teenage problems.

Valerie strolled into the kitchen, quickly popping some bread into the rusting toaster. Once she became a star, she decided, she was going to buy a new toaster. While the bread was cooking, Valerie headed over to the bathroom to brush her hair out and put on some new clothes.

She let out a tired sigh, allowing her gaze to lock with her mirror. Saying that she looked like a disaster right now would be a major understatement. But, saying perhaps, that she looked a stampede of ravenous cows just happened to trample her immediately after Nasty Burger duty? That about summed it up.

Her shiny chocolate hair was tied in knots, after she hadn't even bothered to put it up the night before, and her eyes looked even droopier than they felt. Her face was a dull fluster of red, the kind of shade of red you get after sitting in a sauna for a long time. Any day she would have tolerated her appearance—a few remedies of makeup could cure anything—but today she didn't have time, with only five minutes left until she had to get out the door to head to filming.

She did not want to arrive late on her first day on the job. First impressions mean everything.

Valerie knew her worrying was a hopeless attempt to forget about last night, but she was just in such shock –and confusion – that she didn't know what to do. After all, their characters were fairly intimate, and she did not want to get up close and personal with a ghost.

She wanted to talk to somebody about Danny, like his parents or Vlad, to figure it all out. It all just didn't make sense, and she didn't want to admit it, but she needed help.

Even though she hunted ghosts, the only knowledge she had was the correct gun to use for certain ghosts and how to shoot accurately, but she knew nothing about the anatomy of ghosts. Jack and Maddie—and even Vlad—had the knowledge about ghosts that she didn't have.

Nevertheless, for now all Valerie knew was that Danny was a ghost, and she would do what she was born to –hunt them.

Valerie snuck a glance at the clock; only to find out she was already five minutes behind schedule.

"_Crap_." She cursed, realizing she wouldn't have time for a quick shower and time to look over her script.

Quickly putting on her sandals, she slammed the door behind her and jogged outside to head to filming.

_I'll decide if I want to talk to Jack and Maddie later, _she quickly decided.

* * *

"_Come on, keep moving guys! Only a half hour until the cast arrives_." Greg urged the crew. Already on the first day things were not going as planned. They were an hour behind schedule after the lights had failed to work properly. Now his stars were going to be at the set in a couple minutes and they weren't even close to being done yet.

He sighed and leaned against the brick wall of Amity Park's City Hall while watching the morning sun slowly emerge from the horizon.

This movie meant absolutely everything for his career. His boss had declared it his last chance after directing four movies in the past five years that had not done nearly as well in the box office as expected.

He knew the consequences were very simple –if he failed to make this movie a hit, he would be fired and go back to his old job. He never, _ever, _wanted to go back to being a crocodile wrangler again.

Greg would make a hit movie, no matter what it took.

* * *

It was early—only a half an hour until eight o'clock—and Danny, Tucker, and Sam were walking together, like any ordinary school day.

Except that for the first time since they have been in high school, the trio would _not_ be doing something together. Danny and Tucker would be spending the day filming and Sam would trudge through the day in school.

"Danny, are you okay? You seem a little out of it." Sam's voice broke through the fog in Danny's mind.

"Oh, yes. I'm—I'm fine." He mumbled in response, avoiding eye contact with Sam.

"_Danny. _You are more than aware you can't hide anything from me. Now, what's up with you?"

Danny could feel Sam's eyes boring into him, causing his skin to nervously tingle. _Why does she have to be so beautiful? She always makes me feel this way—weightless. _

He forced his eyes to make contact with Sam's amethyst ones, his heart beating loud enough he was afraid Sam and Tucker would hear it. He never lied to his two best friends, but how was he going to break it to them that Valerie now knew his secret?

"No, it's really nothing." Knowing his response was not good enough, he added, "It's just filming. It's my first day, and I hope Greg will like me. I don't want to mess up."

The lie, in a sense, felt even worse than his fights with Vlad.

What made it worse was that they believed him.

"Man, you are going to be great. You are a natural." Tucker comforted him with a light punch on his shoulder.

A small smile crossed Danny's face. He would work this out eventually. He always did.

Casper High School gradually emerged into view behind the large evergreen trees. Skipping high school with the permission of the teachers was elating to Danny, but he couldn't stand not seeing Sam for a whole day.

"Well, I guess it's time for me to go. Good luck today. " Sam waved them good-bye as she walked closer to Casper High.

Now just the two of them, Tucker and Danny headed down to their first day of filming.

* * *

Valerie panted, her breath coming out in rapid gasps. Her lungs yearned for oxygen, and her legs begged her to stop. Running in jeans and with a backpack certainly didn't help much either.

"I. Can't. Be. Late." She panted, as if words would make her punctual. A gentle sweat was gathering up on her forehead, and she rubbed the back of her hand on it to wipe it away. "Yuck."

A crosswalk came into view, and she sighed in relief as a car passed by, giving her a moments rest. Checking her watch, she groaned. "8:15."

* * *

Valerie panted, her breath coming out in rapid gasps. Her lungs yearned for oxygen, and her legs begged her to stop. Running in jeans and with a backpack certainly didn't help much either.

"I. Can't. Be. Late." She panted, as if words would make her punctual. A gentle sweat was gathering up on her forehead, and she rubbed the back of her hand on it to wipe it away. "Yuck."

A crosswalk came into view, and she sighed in relief as a car passed by, giving her a moments rest. Checking her watch, she groaned. "8:15."

Fifteen minutes late.

And still about a half mile to go.

_Her plan to arrive on time just flew out the window._

With a shaky sigh, Valerie started running again, violently cursing her dad for having to go to work early.

_Boy, this better be worth it, after all that I am doing for this movie. And that I _will _be doing._ _I had to quit my job, stop going to school, and work with a ghost. _She thought to herself.

She needed to think. That was the only thing that would keep her mind off the exhaustion that was consuming her.

_Why hadn't I guessed it before? Why didn't I see that Phantom was taking over my friends' body?_

Unconsciously, without even her even knowing, Valerie had come with the conclusion that Danny was being overshadowed. Deep in her mind, she didn't like the idea of Phantom impersonating him or that the ghost was manifesting inside of Danny. And so she chose the least troubling reason: he was being overshadowed.

_I guess that explains the disappearances in school. Phantom wants to ruin Danny's life. He wants Danny to fail school. And while "Danny" ends up skipping classes, Phantom terrorizes Amity Park. _

_His egotistic self has decided to play himself in the movie. _

_I wonder if his friends and family know that he is being overshadowed. _

Curiously wondering where she was, Valerie looked around. Up one block ahead was City Hall. Her legs abruptly stopped moving, and in response she leaned forward and grabbed her knees for support.

Glancing around to make sure no one in Greg's crew had recognized her, she walked into the small shop close by to her. Inside there were movies lined across the walls, almost looking like some kind of twisted wallpaper. Even around the room were racks filled with assorted movies.

Nonchalantly ignoring the stares from the man at the counter, she rushed inside the bathroom.

The toilet was chipped, the tiles were peeling, and the smell was enough to scare off Pariah Dark, but Valerie ignored everything and slammed her hands into her backpack.

She pulled out a clean, fresh shirt – a red blouse – and a brush. She looked even worse than she had less than an hour ago, but she figured if she cleaned up a tad bit, she would look just fine.

She looked into the cracked mirror, ignoring the circles under her eyes and the lack of brightness on her face.

_I look okay. I can't worry about it or I will be even later than I already am._

She gently closed the door behind her and quietly walked toward the exit.

Just as she was about the open the double doors, the man at the counter spoke.

"Ma'am." He said sternly.

"What?" She asked, her temper getting the best of her. "I have to be someplace."

"My customers always have to buy something before they leave. It's a policy." He responded, a slight edge to his voice.

If this man was any other person, she would have ignored them and stormed out the building, but he wasn't any ordinary man. He was larger than the average person, with muscles slightly prominent under his blue T-shirt. His face was expressionless, as if carved be stone. Something about him made Valerie feel uneasy.

She went towards the nearest rack and grabbed the first movie she saw. Not even bothering to read the title, she gave it to the strange man.

"Twenty bucks." He muttered.

Without even acknowledging him, she gave him the money –her last twenty dollars – and snatched her new movie. With no seconds to waste, she snapped her head away from him and stormed out the building.

Halfway to City Hall, the bright lights of the huge lamps and the massive cameras were easy to spot. And so was Greg's shouting.

"James! Take care of the Baxter boy over here. Tell him the rules. Vanessa! The Fenton boy over here needs a little more makeup. Char –"

Greg's orders were cut off by a voice that Valerie did not recognize. She figured it was somebody on the camera crew. "Valerie's here."

"Valerie?" He turned his head toward her, sounding relieved. Slowly the red on his cheeks faded to a soft tan. "Vanessa! Stop playing house with Fenton and put some makeup on her."

Finally at the set, Valerie had to dodge a huge wire protruding from a camera. Regaining her balance, she pulled her almost-to-tight shirt down, and wriggled her toes in her sandals.

For a brief minute, she scanned the movie set in awe. Surrounding her were dozens of people briskly walking and shouting greetings and reminders to their neighbors. In the parking lot a block away there were trailers filling up the whole space. A little to her left was where most of the people were crowded around with their cameras and standing on ladders to fix the lighting. When Valerie tilted her head up, she could see the black metal figure that seemed like it was the hook of a crane.

"_I am guessing that is the set we are filming at. I wonder what we are doing." _She thought absently to herself.

Her thoughts were interrupted abruptly by the harsh sound of a woman's voice. "So you are Valerie, I am assuming?"

"Yes." Valerie responded, not bothering to even look at the lady. She was too distracted by her surroundings.

"Well, I am Vanessa Shirley. I work with the makeup effects here." Vanessa informed Valerie, the tone of her voice as sharp as ice. "I'll be working with you every day."

Now Valerie was interested—this was going to be somebody she would be with all the time for the next couple months. Once Valerie looked at Vanessa, she couldn't help but stare.

Vanessa was absolutely beautiful, like a carbon copy of a goddess. Her eyes were a crisp amber, with a perfect tan and lightly curled cinnamon brown hair to match it. She was a little taller than Valerie, but without her black high heels Vanessa would be about the same height as her. Vanessa had the perfect body for a model, and her black leather dress fitted her perfectly.

Her appearance _almost _intimidated Valerie. But Valerie never was intimidated.

Realizing that she hadn't answered Vanessa yet, Valerie forced a smile. "Great."

"So now, since you are late, Greg had to push our schedule back an hour. Because of you, instead of the hour I had to fix you up—which I spent reading, by the way, while you were taking your time coming here—I only have a half hour. God knows that isn't enough time to fix _that._" She gestured towards Valerie's less-than-perfect appearance.

Suppressing a glare, Valerie let out a half-hearted laugh.

Just then, she realized there was somebody else walking next to her.

_Danny._

The ghost boy.

For a second she almost thought it was the real ghost boy, not Danny in costume. If his body was glowing with ghostly energy, then he would have looked exactly like Phantom.

She held back the very appealing idea of grabbing the ectogun she had in her pocket. It felt like it was burning through the fabric, as if telling her to use it.

"What are you doing here?" She asked him, trying to sound as pleasant as possible. By the confused look on his face, she figured she didn't succeed.

"I am your co-star, you know." He smirked.

_Don't punch him, don't punch him. He is a ghost. Don't punch him. _

Her mind reeled this around in her mind like a mantra. She could not—absolutely not—hurt somebody for no reason that everyone thought was a human.

"Oh, yeah."

Silence. Valerie enjoyed it that way. She wondered why Danny was talking to him. Didn't he remember anything about last night? He was talking to her like nothing was wrong, but obviously there was _something _wrong. They were enemies.

"So what's that in your hand?" Danny gestured to the movie in Valerie's hand.

"What? I don't have anything in my hand." Unconsciously she looked down into her hands, noticing the movie immediately. She had totally forgotten about it.

Embarrassed, she muttered, "Oh yeah, a movie."

"A movie? Which one?"

Valerie shoved it toward him, trying her best not to look Danny in the eyes. _Those green ghost eyes. _With no reluctance, Danny's white gloved hands took the movie from Valerie.

It was quiet for a moment. Valerie could feel Vanessa's urgency and ignorance coming off in waves. They were in the parking lot with all the trailers and obviously she just wanted to get there. Unexpectedly, Danny started laughing.

"What the—"She glared at him. "What are you laughing about?" After all of her tolerance, all the ghost boy could do was _laugh _at her.

Danny didn't respond right away. Looking through the corner of her vision she noticed Danny's eyes tearing up and silent laughs coming out of his lips.

"You know, you are being very immature right now." She kicked a rock that was in her way. It flew into one of the trailers, ricocheting with a _ding._

"You have a very interesting choice in movies." He read the title, with humor lining every word. "_The Dummies Guide on How to Teach You Parrot to Be Potty Trained."_

Valerie was about to interrupt with her excuse, but Danny held up his hand to stop her.

"Wait. There's more." He paused dramatically. "On the bottom there is picture of a parrot and there is a little speech bubble with him saying, '_This movie is poopalicious. I don't have a potty mouth anymore.'"_

Through Danny's laughing and her own rage, Valerie almost didn't notice Vanessa say, "We're here."

"Well, I've got to go get Tucker." Danny incoherently said, while wiping a tear off his eye. He lightly jogged away, while forgetting to give her movie back, to what Valerie assumed was Tucker's trailer.

"_Fine!_" Valerie shouted to Danny, but she wasn't sure if he could hear her. "Don't give me my movie back!"

She entered Vanessa's trailer in a puff.

* * *

Approximately fifteen minutes later—which seemed like the longest fifteen minutes of Valerie's life—she was out of Vanessa's trailer and sulking towards the set in what was an outfit that she would never be caught wearing in her life.

Valerie Grey, the master of all ghost hunting, had never wanted to be seen wearing a yellow sundress. Apparently, to Vanessa, the yellow made her dull skin look the least bit more attractive.

Her face wasn't any better. Vanessa had applied on more lip gloss than Valerie owned and covered her face in makeup that she had never heard of. Once Vanessa was done, Valerie had left the trailer immediately. She definitely did not want to look in a mirror.

Valerie growled. The things she sacrificed for this movie.

She attempted to ignore her anger and tried to focus on the filming ahead. Today, Valerie was feeling more distracted than she had been in a long while, but she had to stop thinking about everything that had happened in the past couple of days. If she messed up, Greg would probably fire her, and in turn, she wouldn't have the money to help pay for their apartment rent—which then, she would have to continue working at the Nasty Burger.

The closer she got to the set—which she couldn't distinguish because of the masses of people gathered there and the cameras blocking her view—the more she could hear Greg's deep rumbling voice.

"—and obviously, these are the cameras. We have so many of them to capture every angle we can. "Greg paused, noticing Valerie merge into the crowd, next to Paulina. Puzzled, Valerie wondered why Paulina wasn't dressed in costume, but instead in her usual attire.

"Hello, Valerie. Thanks for joining us. I was just introducing everybody to the things in the set you will see every day." He gestured with a sweep of his arms to many faces that Valerie had known for years—Dash, Paulina, Tucker, Danny—and others that she had never seen before. She noticed that nobody was dressed up, except her and Danny.

And she also saw everyone's eyes boring into hers, evaluating her changed appearance, but they all turned away when Greg proceeded talking.

"You didn't miss anything important though. We will start talking about the schedule now. You all have your personal schedules, which are in the back of your script." The flutter of pages interrupted Greg's speech, but he waited until everybody had taken a second to study their schedules.

Valerie saw that almost every day was occupied.

"These are very, very rough schedules, so be prepared to be called in at any time. Most likely, our recently appointed co-producer, October Louis, will give you a call. You all have probably met her for acting lessons." There was a murmur of excitement; everybody loved October.

"And as for those of you who have come here, expecting to be filming today, I apologize. I wanted to get all of you here at once to settle the guidelines." For the next ten minutes, Greg rumbled on about the expectations of all the actors, like how not to chew gum on the set, behavior, and other things Valerie found irrelevant, but she kept in mind.

"So I guess that's all I have to say for now." Greg finished. "I'm looking forward to working with all of you."

The small crowd started dispersing, and Valerie was looking forward to checking out her own trailer. Paulina had started raving about hers immediately after Greg had finished talking.

"Valerie. Danny." Greg called, and Valerie turned around. She saw that Danny was walking towards Greg, so she did the same. She made sure that they would make no physical contact while standing next to each other.

As they approached, Greg continued talking. "Sorry for the late notice, but both of you are in costume because we need to film a scene here. This was the only day we could book the place, so we need to get this done today. October will be coming in your trailer, Valerie, in about ten minutes to look over the scene. I will be going to yours, Danny. Once the scene had been gone over—and it is a fairly moderately lengthed one—we will get you two together here and film it. Got it?"

They both nodded.

"Alright. I'll be in your room in ten, Danny." Greg smiled at the two of them, and then walked off, calling orders to nearby people.

"Well, this is going to be exciting. Right, Valerie?" Danny let out a sheepish grin, looking at her as if he was almost nervous.

"Yeah, _ghost._" She muttered, turning around to head to her trailer.

The whole time she was aware of Danny's shocked expression.

* * *

Valerie opened the door to her trailer, awed at what she saw. Lined against one of the walls were clothes of all kinds, from dresses to jeans to fancy blouses. She had never in her life owned any such clothes as this. The dresses she could live without, but everything else she was overwhelmed with.

_This is nicer than my apartment, _she thought.

In the middle of the room—if that is what it could be called—was a small white couch placed in front of a flat-screen television. Thankfully, they had provided her with another script, which was conveniently placed on the couch. She needed another one.

At the far edge of the trailer was a large window, so she could look outside. Next to her, right by the door that lead to a makeshift bathroom, was a giant mirror. She gazed at her reflection, speculating her appearance. _I look fine, if not different._

A knock on the door forced Valerie to revert her gaze from the mirror. "Who is it?" She yelled pleasantly.

"October." A muffled voice came from outside.

"Oh, I am sorry." She rushed over—which didn't take that long, considering it was about one long stride away—and opened the door.

"Hello." October smiled. "Do you have your script?"

In response, Valerie picked up the large book-like binding of paper from the couch.

"Great. Let's practice your lines, 'Susan Baker'"

It was around one after October and Valerie had finished practicing her lines. Once October had deemed Valerie ready, she excused herself from Valerie's trailer.

Valerie sat in silence for a moment, and then opened the door to outside. The afternoon sun was bright against her eyes, and she had to shield her face for her eyes to adjust.

While heading to the center of the commotion, which was the place where Valerie and Danny would meet to do their scene, Valerie reviewed her lines. It wasn't that she was nervous about forgetting her lines, but rather she was nervous about the scene itself.

This scene, like many others to come, involved intimacy between Danny and her. Valerie was definitely not ready to be getting close and personal with a ghost, and she wasn't sure if she could pull it off. Her blood boiled every time she talked to him.

"Valerie!" Greg grinned at her from behind a camera lens and gestured her over. "How'd your session with October go?"

"Great." Valerie replied, sounding a little less than convincing, but Greg didn't seem to catch on.

"We are going to start now. Just sit on the steps next to Danny." Valerie followed his order, not having any choice.

Taking her time, Valerie headed towards Danny, who was being covered in last-minute makeup by Vanessa. For a moment Valerie thought that Danny wearing makeup was funny, but then like a gust of wind, she was reminded that he was nothing but a ghost. Nothing was funny about a ghost.

She sat next to Danny in silence on the cold, hard steps of City Hall. He smiled a hello at her, but she ignored it, instead averting her attention to her surroundings.

About half a dozen cameras surrounded the steps, and an equal number of lights. It was overwhelming, the feeling of having the spotlight on just herself—and Danny.

She was gazing at the people passing by when she felt Vanessa applying more blush to her cheeks. "You have to learn not to rub your makeup off. I can't always be here." She muttered to Valerie, out of the earshot of Greg. Before Valerie could snap back, Vanessa stalked off the set, leaving Danny and Valerie alone.

"Alright! We are ready now!" He shouted to his crew. To Danny and Valerie he yelled, "Now don't be nervous, you two. Just act like we were at lessons and you guys will do great. Move a little closer to Danny, Valerie."

He paused for a moment while Valerie reluctantly scooted towards Danny.

"Fantastic. Now we are starting with Danny's line, at '_This has been really great.'_ And action!"

The excited tension changed at that one word—action. Everybody became quite and serious, focusing on their cameras, lights, or even on them. Valerie knew how this whole filming thing worked; October had gone over it in her trailer, and she was prepared.

Danny's calm voice broke into Valerie's thoughts. "This has been really great, Susan." His voice portrayed convincing emotion, but Valerie knew this _ghost _couldn't fool her.

But, as everyone says, the show must go on.

"I know, it has." She replied back, saying lines she had said dozens of times.

"I don't want to leave." Danny looked her in the eyes, and she followed suit, just as the script said.

_Green eyes. Ghost eyes. _

Immediately she averted her gaze to the stone steps. She just couldn't look _that _in the eyes.

"_Cut." _Greg cut in, before Valerie could recite her lines. "Valerie, you have to look Danny in the eyes. It may be awkward, but your characters are in love. You have to be convincing. Start from the beginning. Action!"

They repeated their lines for the second time.

"I don't want to leave." He looked her in the eyes once again, and this time she stared right back. Without the supernatural glow, Valerie figured she could handle it.

"I don't want you to leave either. Stay." She breathed. She was _supposed _to place her hand on Danny's, but her body seemed to not be cooperating. The only time she touched a ghost was when she was punching it. Danny, recognizing the problem, put his hand on hers instead.

She flinched.

"_Cut!" _Greg yelled, his face flustered. "How about we take a ten minute break? Let's calm down a bit." He turned around, addressing October about something, his expression tense.

Valerie sighed, propping herself up. She couldn't take this. Hopping off the steps, she headed over to get some water on one of the tables set out for the crew.

She was halfway there when she heard Danny's voice from behind her.

"Valerie."

She ignored him.

"Valerie!"

She walked faster.

"_Valerie!" _Unexpectedly, he stepped in front of Valerie so she could only see him. "Look, I apologize about last night. But you wanted to know—"

She walked around Danny. "I don't want to hear it, _ghost."_

Danny flinched at the name, but continued to follow her, his face determined. "Look, Valerie, I'm really sorry—"

She turned to look Danny in the face, with nothing but rage consuming her expression. "No, you are not sorry. Ghost can't feel. They only terrorize. You're lucky, _Phantom_, that we are in public right now, or I would shoot you right now with the gun in my pocket." She turned her back again to Danny.

She was so close to the water, and she was so thirsty. A little glass of cold water would cure her frustration for a short while.

She was frustrated at everything right now—about how she couldn't get her scene right, about how her acting job now seemed to be hanging on a single string, and how the ghost boy just showed her up on the set a moment ago.

It made her angry.

A colder-than-normal-hand suddenly grasped her arm. Valerie's reaction was normal, for her. She slapped it. "_Don't touch me."_

She swiveled her body around to glare at Danny, his face desperate. But Valerie didn't care.

"It isn't what it seems like. If you could just listen to me for one second…"

"_No. _Why should I listen to you?" Without realizing it first, Valerie's voice had risen to a yell.

Out of nowhere, Greg stormed into the area. "What is going on here, you two?"

"Nothing." They replied in unison—Danny's face stern, and Valerie's defiant.

"It sure doesn't look like it. I leave for five minutes and I find you two almost at each other's throats." The blue veins in Greg's neck became more prominent the louder his voice got. "October, lead the two of them to the Extra trailer. Lock the doors."

Octobers face matched the two teens'—shock.

"Since you guys can't get along, I guess I will have to make you. In three hours, if you two haven't started to get along, I might have to consider new stars of this movie." Greg stormed off, leaving Valerie and Danny alone with October.

"Well I guess you two have to come with me." The beautiful co-producer muttered to them, her voice sounding detached to her body.

* * *

_Thanks for reading! I am quite proud; this is my longest chapter to date. I spent about two week writing this...with about a couple days' worth of breaks, of course. I had to work through my computer breaking twice. But...I finished._

_I'd like to thank Alluring Alliteration, Jaylein-Skyler, Nano Phantom, -kicker, The Feral Candy Cane, Donteatacowman, Tay1019411, Pterodactyl, Trinity Fenton-Phantom, ThunderRiver411, Random Cheesecake, kouriel, Dragon260, CrystalMage99, PhantomMouse115, inukagome15, Biisaiyowaq, Fugitive of Gray, and Pii for reviewing the last chapter. Your words meant so much to me. I read your reviews about twice over before I wrote this._


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